We took a bus ride from Krakow to the small town of Zakopane. It’s a mountain town, similar to Mammoth, skiing in the winter and hiking in the spring/summer. We stayed one night at Zakopane then took a quick bus ride over to Kunize to begin our hike up the Tantry mountains. We first hiked an hour and a half to the mountain retreat called Hali Kondratowej. It’s basically a small wooden cabin situated at the base of the mountains. Since camping is prohibited in the Tatrys’ our only option was to stay at the cabin. The retreat is owned by a friendly old gentleman named Jan and his loyal dog Gala. We dropped off our backpacks into our bunk room and continued our hike up the mountain. The scenery is amazing! Large, open, green fields as we’re slowly beginning our hike up. Tall, skinny pine trees everywhere. A little bit of snow left on the mountains. It felt like the Sound of Music….”The Hills are Alive…yada yada..!!!”…you know very European. Since I’m from California desert terrain, it’s great having a new change of scenery. So we hiked up to a peak called Kopa Kondracka - elevation 2005 meters. We thought it would be fun to hike up to 2005 meters in 2005 Along the top of the ridge borders Poland and Slovakia. So for several meters one can hike in Poland and Slovakia at the same time - no Visa required. Although it’s big trouble if you hike down to Slovakia. We hiked back down to Hali Kondratowej and met our bunk mates for the night, Jrek and Agnes (very nice couple from Warsaw) and a young kid (don’t know name he was kinda shy). After our hike we just lounged around the cabin eating Polish food and drinking Polish Beer and getting to know the couple from Warsaw. We are now back in Zakopane, will take a bus back to Krakow and take the evening train for Prague tonight.

Pictures

The border of Poland and Slovakia via Eddy’s ass.

View at the top of Kopa.

Tatry Mountains.

Janek’s cabin.

Us and our bunk mates.

Janek and Gala.

Today we took a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to Auschwitz from Krakow. Initially we had no intention of seeing the Nazi concentration camps, but our neighbor from home, Al e-mailed us and felt it was an important place for us to visit. We arrived at Auschwitz and it was extremely crowded. 2005 is the 60th anniversary of the liberation so there are many visitors this year. What can I say it was very disturbing. One of the most shocking exhibits was a large pile of human hair, piled so high it looked like a mini landfill. Before execution the Nazi’s would shave off everyones head. The hair was then used to make fabric for Nazi uniforms!! So disgusting….Later we were taken by our tour guide to Birkenbau, the site of the mass cremations and killings….Anyway I could go one but we all know took place here. It’s astonishing that the Nazi’s had built this large infrastruture for such a heinous cause.

My main observation of Auschwitz is the crazy amount of money they must have had to build two such enormous camps and to have slaughtered so many in such a clean and precise fashion. When we went to see the Killing Fields of Cambodia, that was all it was. Fields of ditches where people were battered to death to save bullets for combat. They did not bother building crematoriums and gas chambers. They didn’t have the resources. These two atrosities had almost the same number of murders. Cambodia if I remember correctly actually had more. The Nazi’s even had the technology to reuse the hairs of the women to make cloth for soldier uniforms! Insane! It only takes the insanity of one to kill over a million people. Bush you better watch out, you may be the next one.

Picture

Birkenau.

We’ve just spent three very relaxing days in “the forest” as our host called his home town of Zalesie Gornie, just south of Warsaw. We were able to meet up with Rafal, a friend of Malgosia’s, the day after we arrived. He immediately invited us to stay at the forest, we said no at first because we had already booked another night at the hostel. But after hanging out with him for a little while, we decide to screw the city and head to the forest. It was great! Spent the first day shopping around his little town for food and drinks we would need. As we walked along, he asked if I knew how to make any cakes. Apparently he has quite the sweet tooth, as I later found out from his wife, Agata. The only thing I can remember to make on the run is Nancy’s flan recipe. So we did. It actually turned out fine (believe it or not, Nancy), even though what I thought might have been evaporated milk was more like thick cream. It was all fine. They seemed to like it, it kept getting eaten. I hope it was not out of courtesy. We spent the next day helping with the house, which is a work in progress. A great heavy timber home, similar to a log house made in 1970. (BTW we are camping in our tent in their backyard. Can hear birds all night long. Quite nice.) Next day was Poland’s Child day so their daughters were not required to be a school. The oldest, Anyila, expressed a desired to come with us to visit Warsaw so we took her with us. We had a nice leisurely day walking around. Saw a great art exhibit of Kantor’s work. Had pizza as that was her choice of meal for the day. Unfortunately, I think we were becoming a burden on their very busy lifes, so we decided the following day, today, we should leave the forest for the rest of our travels. So now we are here in Krakow. Will stay for a couple of days then we head to Zakopane and the Tatra mountains. We will hike up and stay in a cabin and spend two days up there. Then we head straight to Prague. The last stretch will find us within 24 hours at the top of Poland and then hopefully in the heart of Czech. See you along the way…

Pictures

House in the forest.

Rafal’s swimming pool.

Kefir in our tent.

Anyila with us in Warsaw.

Leaving the forest.

Sorry don’t have much time to blog. Our train bound for Krakow is leaving shortly. Just wanted to say that we’re having a great time in Poland. The Poles are extremely friendly and helpful. A very nice change of scenery after Russia. A lot of smiles and friendly faces - We Love Poland!!

We’re free at last! Russia is over. We arrived in Poland yesterday afternoon. It seems no matter where though the poor and/or uneducated will still be dumb asses. We took our tram into town in the wrong direction and had to wait at the end of the line for the tram to turn around. In the 15 minutes of waiting a guy with his pal and little daugther came to wait as well. He didn’t approach us, luckily, but made annoying noises which I suppose was his attempt at an oriental language. In the process of tossing the ball around with the kid, it hit us. It took I think every muscle in Eddy’s body not to jump the guy. After such a hard week through Russia, he was ready to beat the living daylight out of the next retard. Luckily he was able to keep his cool.

If it weren’t for our meeting Andrey on the train and making dates to walk around the city of St. Petersburg, we may not have seen much more than the Hermitage. We were clearly warned about the pick pockets on the main street, Netsky Prospect, so we headed out the second day to that area, we only packed our lunch in the shoulder bag. All important things were on our bodies in front of us. We were walking along and I got cut off on a fairly busy section by a guy looking like he was just going to stop right in front of me to make a cell phone call. This set off alarm bells in me, because he could easily of walked a little further over to be out of walking traffic. So I quickly walked around him and started walking faster. Just to have another guy do the same thing. There wasn’t any time to let Eddy know, so I just kept avoiding them and walking faster in the hopes they would loose interest. But they continued, just as one of them was going to grab for things in our bag, which I was carrying, Eddy looked over and saw him. Ed grabbed the bag and the guy took off. They are supposed to be so smooth, but I would say they were anything but. Absolutely no shame, one of the guys kept staring at me after the failed attempt. What bothered me most was that it was a busy street full of Russians, no one tried to help or even asked if we were okay. I know LA is not the warmest city in the world, but I think most of us would have stopped to check.

After this fabulous event we spent the afternoon far away from the city. We took a hydro foil to Peterhof, Peter the Great’s Summer Palace by the Finnish Sea. It was nice just to loiter around for several hours in the gardens with the hundred or so fountains, eat our lunch on park benches. We made sure to avoid the main street when we headed back. Meet a couple from LA, Russian women and Chicago man. Very nice, apparently they got harrassed, but mostly for money but cops and other city officials.

Our last full day, we met up with Andrey for a supper walking tour of St. Petersburg. Visited several historical sites and churches. We were taking the metro back to our homestay, Andrey was with us because he was going to the airport to meet a friend and it was the same metro. It was crowded, everyone was pretty orderly, stood where they showed up, except for one guy. And wouldn’t you know it, he tried to push Andrey out of the way to pick pocket us, but Andrey knew what was up and wouldn’t let him near me. We were all packed in like sardines. The guy starting yelling at Andrey, but he wouldn’t budge. He really made the trip. We felt save. Thanks!

Now we are in Warsaw, so far so good. Had a great meal last night and met the owner of the hostel while hanging out in the corridor of the hostel. We’ll see how it goes. We’re going to call a friend’s friend up today and see if we meet up with them.

Pictures

Me on Peter the Great.

Us with Andrey.

Eddy’s first Polish beer!