So after our time in Lithuania came to an end we caught a delightful overnight bus from Vilnius to Warsaw in Poland. Needless to say the overnight bus was an absolute stinker - definitely not enough legroom for the ample gent - that combined with two Polish guys talking for the entire 8 hours made for a horrid experience, will definitely be avoiding them for a while!
Anyway, after the shittiest bus ride ever we made it to Warsaw and we very pleased with what greeted us. Our hostel was pretty awesome and we managed to snag a free breakfast before hitting the city while we waited for our beds to be ready to gather some much needed sleep. Most of the town was flattened during World War 2, but was reconstructed to look exactly as it did before the war - as is becoming tradition on this trip, we spent our first day on a free walking tour - definitely a great way to see the city. Some culinary highlights include our hostel being directly around the corner from a KFC, our first Vietnamese meal of the trip and Tom doing a shot of vodka followed by some pig's lard and pickle on bread... yummy!
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| King Sigismund of Polan |
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| KG in deep thought over the Vietnamese menu |
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| Traditional Polish beer snack - pig's lard and pickle |
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| Selfie in the main square of Warsaw |
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| The gates of Pawiak Prison |
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| Warsaw Uprising monument |
Our next stop was Krakow, Australia - well it's not actually in Australia but pretty much everyone in our hostel was from Australia. Krakow was definitely the most "touristy" place we have visited thus far - spent our time doing more free walking tours, one which went to the Jewish Quarter & Shindler's Factory - despite Tom's optimism, Liam Neeson was a no show... We also took a trip to the Polish salt mines - these huge undergrave caves that were dug out when they used to mine salt - sounds boring but was actually really cool.
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| The ugliest city mascot ever? (It's a dragon) |
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| Lunch at a "milk bar" - 2 plates of dumplings, a shnitty w/ mash + a coke - $5AUD - couldn't buy the materials for that much! |
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| The main Chapel of the Salt Mines - this was dug/drilled 200 years ago and is 130m below ground |
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| These guys have the right idea - alas, we were too far away... |
Our last day in Poland was spent visiting Auschwitz, the ex-Nazi concentration camp just outside of Krakow. I will keep this section quick and only post one photo as we do not feel we need to harp on about it. We both agreed it was the most intense thing we have ever seen and were both horrified at the sheer scale of what occurred at the site, a quote from a plaque at the camped summed it up best -
"For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe."
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| "Arbeit Mach Frei" - Work Sets You Free |
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