Krakow

This morning, I saw Wawel Cathedral and was impressed by the stained glass and silver panels in the chapels. After that I checked out the Big bell and then went for a walk and saw Cloth Hall.

I decided to leave a day early (tomorrow 4/29) because the train ride is 16 hours and because I've seen everything I wanted to see. At the train station, I got my reservation and had the Polish bureaucracy experience of waiting in line a long time to get something simple done.

Afterwards, I tried to walk to Kazmierz but I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up farther east. I took the tram back and had early dinner at Chlopski Jadlo again. This time it was veal breaded and fried with potatoes and pickled veggie salads from big pots. After dinner I was awestruck by the incredible St Mary's Basilica. I got to see something great every day here in Krakow.

After that, I went back to the hotel restaurant (Metropolitan) and had two more of those great lemonades and some water. They are so good. My trip started to feel over, but it was the right time to go.

Auschwitz

At Auschwitz-Birkenau it was a hottish day by Polish standards--80+ degrees, but really it was nice, mellow weather with a light breeze to make it comfortable. The original Auschwitz camp was rather small and close to town. Birkenau was a kilometer away near farmland and much bigger. Seeing them was not terrifying as I thought it would be the night before, but it was much more confusing and depressing.

The Nazis went off the rails before they built the camps, and I still don't understand how that happened. The fact that it happened at all is the scary thing, and maybe the scariest is that humans are capable of that given the right (or rather the wrong) circumstances.

It worries me when I see the strong picking on the weak in any situation. Everyone just kept "following through" until the end. How could they do it? What was the reasoning behind scapegoating the Jews? It's absurd. No one must have questioned. But maybe they did question, and the problem was simply that the Nazis were gangster bullies with political power--very dangerous.

[There's much more to it than this. A couple of clues to what went wrong are provided by Elias Canetti in his work Crowds and Power. In it, he explains how Hitler's use of the phrase The Diktat of Versailles emphasised the disbanding of the German army by force at the end of World War I. The treaty had deprived the Germans of one of their most important social structures--the army--and Hitler kept that wound open by calling the treaty a diktat.

Later, in the same chapter, he describes how Hitler used the effects of hyperinflation in Germany to scapegoat the Jews by supplying the humiliated German people with an object to degrade. Canetti writes:

"No one ever forgets a sudden depreciation of himself, for it is too painful. Unless he can thrust it on to someone else, he carries it with him for the rest of his life...Something must be treated in such a way that it becomes worth less and less, as the unit of money did during the inflation. And this process must be continued until its object is reduced to a state of utter worthlessness."

Canetti goes on to say:

"The world is still horrified and shaken by the fact that the Germans could go so far; that they either participated in a crime of such magnitude, or connived at it, or ignored it. It might not have been possible to get them to do so if, a few years before, they had not been through an inflation during which the Mark fell to a billionth of its former value."

Crowds and Power (1984 reprint) by Elias Canetti, p. 179-188]

The Auschwitz-Birkenau trip took all day. I was glad I saw it, but I'm also glad that I never have to do that again.

I took the train home and had Hungarian Goulash for dinner which was good but very heavy and rich--a potato pancake with pork in a tomato-based sauce (probably with a lot of butter in it); a hot tea with lemon; a nice onion, pepper, leek, and chive salad; and ice cream for dessert. I over did it, but that was because I didn't eat lunch.

Afterwards, I took a slow walk around Rynek Glowny to notice details of the buildings and I got to hear the little horn song from St. Mary's Basilica up close. A small trumpet plays on the hour and gets cut off abruptly toward the end. I like hearing that little horn, and it lifted my spirits a little after the heavy Auschwitz trip.

It looks like tomorrow is my last full day in Krakow. The plan is to see St. Mary's Basilica, the Royal Cathedral, Cloth Hall and to take another walk. I'm getting a little tired of all the rambunctious 18-25 year-olds here in Krakow. Apparently Krakow is party-central because of all the bars. People stay out until 4AM yelling. It's pretty silly and quite different from Istanbul. Getting up early helps avoid a lot of that, but it gets really loud here at night.

Krakow

Some stops on the way to Krakow were spotty with graffiti, run down stations, and trash beside the railroad tracks, but once we got into Krakow it was extremely nice.

There was a beautiful moat around the town from centuries past that was turned into a park encircling the city and gorgeous old buildings from the 12th century on, many in the later neoclassical style from the 18th century. I found Hotel Saski, and it was just right--close to everything, centrally located, authentic neoclassical style with a really cool elevator, but a little loud due to the street noise like the book said.

Dinner at the adjoining Metropolitan Restaurant was excellent. They have great lemonade there with a bit of lime and sugared rim.

This morning, I woke up and went on the tours at Wawel Castle. The guide was very good, and she recommended God's Playground: A History of Poland for Foreigners by Norman Davies. At lunch I ate traditional Polish food at Chlopskie Jadlo--herring with sour cream, apples, and onions. It was unusual, but good. It was served with thick slices of bread and a choice of pork fat or a cream cheese and chive spread. Black tea is big here too according to Lonely Planet, but here they serve it with a slice of lemon.

The weather has been perfect--it cools down at night, and it's sunny and clear during the day without being too hot (high of 75 or 70 degrees). I had a frappe and wrote postcards to everyone. I've noticed there are more bookstores here than in other places I've visited.

The main square--Rynek Glowny--is 200m x 200m surrounded by buildings 5-6 stories high where each story about is about 20 feet high. The architecture has clean lines and gives off a feeling of royalty. It is most impressive. The doorways show the real age of the buildings, some of which date back to the Renaissance, and some as far back as the 11th century.

I rested after lunch because I was dead--three days by train from Istanbul without stopping had worn me out. My back was hurting and I was on the verge of getting sick again. The nap, water, and easy walk around the north part of old town helped a lot. I planned an Auschwitz-Birkenau trip for the next day, but before that I took a walk at the south part of old town where I checked out Smak Ukrainski and had some nice Ukrainian food--beetroot salad with dill and a large dumpling with rice and meat inside--very nice. After that, I felt better, so I checked out the architectural details of Kanonicza Street near the Copernicus Hotel, then walked home through the Main Square at night.

The evening was beautiful, and with the cool weather, everyone was milling around the square and enjoying the horse-drawn carriages, beautiful buildings, and other features of square like the St Mary's Cathedral, and town hall tower--great atmosphere here. Then it was time for bed.

I didn't sleep because I drank too much of the excellent coffee here at the free breakfast in the Metropolitan. It seems stronger than the coffee I had in Italy and even seems stronger than the coffee I had in Istanbul. The Turkish coffee didn't really have much of a kick that I could tell. Maybe boiling the coffee breaks down the caffeine. I'm not sure. Maybe it was also the amount of coffee I drank--in Turkey the cups are espresso cups, and here in Poland they were full cups of good black coffee.

The women here are really beautiful--tall, thin, pretty faces and they have full, hourglass figures with thin waists. I'm not sure if those are Eastern European characteristics, but their special beauty is worth noting.

Belgrade to Budapest to Krakow

03:30 -- We just left Serbia and are moving towards Hungary. [too sleepy] Had an expensive, filling breakfast on DB to Brno, Czech Republic while three people who seemed to have been partying all night talked loudly and ordered beer at around 7 AM. 11:03 -- The train to Bohumin goes to Krakow eventually, but there's a 45 minute wait. 11:54 -- I caught the train to Bohumin, and at some stop in Poland about 7 miles away from Drycise, I had to change to a bus. I hope it works.

The strange bus ride was about 15-20 min to Zakaz Koureni [sp?] via Arealu Stanice [sp?], and now we're back on the train. We'll see what happens. Since we crossed the border into Poland I've noticed huge meadows of yellow flowers 2-3 feet high with a bulb with clusters of small flowers at the top. One field looked like a bright, yellow river about to flood a small town, coming down from a high hill. It's sunny and warm with a breeze here now.

12:40 -- We're still in Czech Republic at Prerov station. Prerov is halfway between Brno and Ostrava at the Polish border.

11:03-12:42 -- It took about 40 minutes to get from Brno to Prevov, so that's about 1.5 hours to the border and 1.5 hours from the border to Krakow, which puts our arrival at 15:45 or thereabouts.

13:00 -- Drahotuvse; 13:05 -- Hranice, Czech Republic; 13:16 -- Schudol; Ostrava is my stopping point; 13:25 -- Studenka.

I got off at Ostrava as planned and caught the EC 107 coming from Praha. Its next stop was Bohumin which is where the previous train was going anyway. I should get to Katowice at 15:50. The information counter at Ostrava was great--the lady there was helpful and gave me train changes and a print out of my itinerary. I need to get on the train to Katowice at 16:20 to make it to Krakow-Glovny at 17:48.

Brno was a decent choice--the conductor on the platform helped me as did a mom and son who were also traveling on the city train for my Brno-Ostrava. Left them after we briefly switched to the bus because I was OK.

16:04--Katowice. It appears to be a slum, but it could be just the area around the train station. Also, I saw a larger building a couple of blocks away from the train tracks, and after that, more density and some traffic. Things looked OK there. Near the tracks, there were a lot of demolished buildings or remains of buildings, and I noticed several spots with a dozen or more empty beer bottles in lying in one place. Maybe the train tracks are the place to go for a small party or some solitary binge drinking. Again, it could just be the wrong side of the tracks.

It reminded me of government corruption I've heard about. Maybe people here have lost their hope, and I'm trying to read too much into only a peek at the city, but it's the worst I've seen. Even worse than Sofia, Bulgaria or Belgrade, Serbia although again, I only saw the train station for those places also.

I guess I jumped to conclusions. It's nicer on the other side of the station. There are still some pretty ugly tenements and lots of graffiti, but not the bombed out look from before. The train station is not the best way to judge anyway. I even saw a nice old historic building just now. Still though, the train tracks at the next station (MiKclowich) were really rough and had grass growing over most of the tracks--they looked poorly maintained, though I know the Krakow-Warsaw route has better trains and tracks because my Eurail map says high speed trains connect those two cities.

I'm seeing some of the intimidating monolithic Soviet architecture already as we creep along--presumably to avoid derailing on the old tracks. We're picking up speed outside the station.

Thessalonica to Sofia to Belgrade

I got a sleeper train from Thessalonica to Sofia, Bulgaria. It arrived at 6AM in Sofia. The previous train ride from Istanbul to Thessalonica was about fifteen hours, so once I got to Sofia, I didn't really leave the train station even though I had a four hour wait. I was dead, so I found another long haul sleeper from Sofia to Budapest. I ended up with my own room again which is great.

I'm out of food though and starting to get a bit hungry. I overate in Turkey, so it's not a really a problem. The border crossing outside of Sofia was painless, and the route is is Sofia-Belgrade, Serbia-Budapest, Hungary. I'm going to try to go straight through to Poland without stopping if I can. That would make it Copenhagen-Hamburg-Zurich-Venice-Patras-Athens-Thessalonica-Istanbul-Iznik-Selcuk (Efesus)-Istanbul-Thessalonica-Sofia-Belgrade-Budapest so far.

18:03 -- We just left Belgrade I think. The (totally skewed and unfair) railway view of the place was that the suburbs were OK with rocky hills and tall trees; but the station was kind of run-down looking. It was functional but needed maintenance. There were lots of houses in different stages of completion, and there was plenty of construction going on--additions to houses, new houses, etc.

The neighborhood was spotty though with patches of demolished buildings. Reminds me that in some places, fast construction is a hedge against high inflation. Maybe that explains what I'm seeing here, or maybe the economy is still recovering after conflicts. I've noticed lots of farmland in Turkey (Thrace), Greece, and here in Serbia. The land is really fertile looking in Serbia, more so than Greece with its sandy, rocky soil and smallish scrub brush trees. People on the streets here are getting on with their daily lives--school, work, farming, and construction. Why not? It's a Tuesday. I'm not sure what I was expecting--maybe more craters from bombs or destroyed buildings.

Istanbul to Thessalonica

It's 8AM, and I'm sitting in the Orient Express Restaurant in Serkeci Train Station, Istanbul. It seems they're slowly starving the train system in Turkey. "Left baggage" closed four years ago. There is only one train a day to Greece--more politics. The train seems to be generally useless here, but the bus is easy to catch, cheap, and faster than the train. I didn't really try the Ankara trip though. It might have been OK. My only real train experience once I got to Turkey was trying to get info at Haydarpasa where a fight broke out between an old man and a teenage boy. Maybe that affected my judgement.

On another note, I don't really like the climate of the Aegean Coast (Efesus, Selcuk, etc.) which is humid and hotter than I like it. Maybe I just got lucky, but Istanbul was wonderful for weather: cool in mornings and evenings, probably because it's right on the water.

Iznik was a nice little farming town on a large, pretty lake where they make beautiful tiles. The people at that hotel were kind and breakfast was good as it was at Hotel Nilya in Selcuk the next day. I had two of the best cups of Turkish coffee at these two places. The one I'm having now is not bad though a little pricey.

Maybe someday they'll start the Orient Express (Paris-Istanbul) back up again. I think it would be a good idea. Maybe in a couple of years, say 2010, Turkey will be part of the EU and it will make sense to start it back up. The Efesus ruins were nice to see, even though tourist season is starting now. Fortunately, I caught it before ANZAC Day so I still got a hotel.

Last night on my bus trip back to Istanbul from Izmir (3PM - 00:30) I got worried by all the over-helpful young guys going to Istanbul. They were concerned for me because we would be arriving so late. I ended up using the Kamil Koc courtesy service they suggested to get me to a cab and then to the Hotel Sultan's Inn which I had avoided the first time around in Istanbul. It turned out to be OK, but I could've used a newer book with an updated train, bus ferry schedule for 2007.

After two cups of overpriced Turkish coffee at the Orient Express Restaurant in Serkeci station, I went through the border crossing routine at Uzunkopru. It didn't seem like anyone wanted us to leave Turkey. They definitely took their time and even escorted a couple of Chinese tourists off the train. We all made the crossing OK, and we got off to switch trains in a small Greek town nearby. At that point, they escorted the Chinese guy and girl off the train again.

While waiting, I met the other people leaving Istanbul by train that day--two Americans on a trip to Turkey and Greece. The US couple are from Minnesota and Kansas and we talked about Istanbul and Greece mostly. They told me about the people--possibly missionaries--who were tortured and killed in eastern Turkey only a day or two before. I was surprised and disappointed.

The people running the station put the Chinese tourists back on a train and I'm not sure whether they had to go back to Istanbul or if they made it to Alexandropoulis--their intended destination. Maybe they were coming overland from China-India-East Turkey-Europe. I never found out. The border guard was a little bit of an authoritarian, and my book said the border crossing here could be problematic. I just stared at him, and when he kept staring back I said "merhabah". He seemed to like that so I didn't get harassed or sent back to Istanbul.

Efesus to Istanbul

I had a great breakfast at Hotel Nilya in Selcuk with Turkish coffee equal to that in Iznik at the tile hotel. In the morning, I walked to see the Efesus ruins, and in the afternoon, I caught a small bus from Selcuk to Izmir and a larger bus from Izmir to Istanbul where I got assistance finding a new hotel from very helpful passengers.