Post by Kim on Jan 19, 2002 10:44:58 GMT -5
17 January
Hi to one and all,
A bit of catching up today......from Warsaw I took the train to Krakow, fully in the mindset that I would spend one night, see Auschwitz and then move right on along. Got off the train at Krakow, dreading the whole thing, finding a room, something to eat, etc when suddenly a very proper British voice says "excuse me, are you looking for a b & b?" I'll tell you, I nearly dropped my pack! Now, folks approach you at every station just about, and till now I have normally just blown them off. But I stopped and asked her about it, she showed me where it was on the map, I told her her english was very good and she said of course, she was from London. Well, my antennas were not up, and best of all she had a car(!) so I said I would go look. Good choice again. Lovely nice apt., huge room, she lives with her 12 year old daughter and they made me so at home.
Walked into town, and Krakow is so very much nicer than Warsaw. It was not damaged in the war, is the oldest city in Poland and the heart of it's cultural community. A huge town square, supposedly the biggest in Europe, a great castle that reminded me a bit of Edinburgh's and some excellent museums. And, while English was surely not commonplace, there was enough of it about to be able to manage. Food is dirt cheap here! Huge dinner's in really nice places, with 2
glasses of wine for 8 euro. The main church in town, St. Mary's Basillica was breathtaking! Sadly, no photos allowed so I will never be able to show you. While this town was pleasant and very old, full of history and interesting buildings to see, it is still so polluted it is hard to breath. And as Mirisha
was telling me, and she was a goldmine of info on Poland in the past ten years (we sat up way late one evening talking) although there is every shop you could think of and more, from Patagonia to Tommy, Body Works to Cartier.....sadly, for the average Pole they remain totally outside their means. The average middle mgr makes about $600 a month, cashier about $250.....that's in our dollar conversion rate of course....and electricty alone will take a minimum of 1\4 of that. They have come a long way, but are hardly fully in the capitalistic mode as yet. As she said, the Poles had musch more money in their pockets under the communists.....there was nothing in the shops to buy with it, but they had money. Now, there is everything in the shops, in the ads, on TV....and they couldn't begin to afford it. Which is worse? Not having what you don't know you are missing.....or having it thrust in your face and not be able to get it? Still a very repressed society it looked to me.
I went to Auschwitz and Birkenau the second day there. I can't really write much about that...maybe later. I felt I had to see it, and am glad I did. But it was horrid beyond description, all that I had thought to find, and so much more. I had steeled myself, and thought I was ready. There is no getting ready for that. The sheer size of it will stop you in your tracks. It was a horrible, rough, raw day.
Left Krakow headed for Vienna...which is where I am writing this from. What a damn difference a border or two can make!
Hope all is well with everyone......It's colder than can be lately!
ging
Hi to one and all,
A bit of catching up today......from Warsaw I took the train to Krakow, fully in the mindset that I would spend one night, see Auschwitz and then move right on along. Got off the train at Krakow, dreading the whole thing, finding a room, something to eat, etc when suddenly a very proper British voice says "excuse me, are you looking for a b & b?" I'll tell you, I nearly dropped my pack! Now, folks approach you at every station just about, and till now I have normally just blown them off. But I stopped and asked her about it, she showed me where it was on the map, I told her her english was very good and she said of course, she was from London. Well, my antennas were not up, and best of all she had a car(!) so I said I would go look. Good choice again. Lovely nice apt., huge room, she lives with her 12 year old daughter and they made me so at home.
Walked into town, and Krakow is so very much nicer than Warsaw. It was not damaged in the war, is the oldest city in Poland and the heart of it's cultural community. A huge town square, supposedly the biggest in Europe, a great castle that reminded me a bit of Edinburgh's and some excellent museums. And, while English was surely not commonplace, there was enough of it about to be able to manage. Food is dirt cheap here! Huge dinner's in really nice places, with 2
glasses of wine for 8 euro. The main church in town, St. Mary's Basillica was breathtaking! Sadly, no photos allowed so I will never be able to show you. While this town was pleasant and very old, full of history and interesting buildings to see, it is still so polluted it is hard to breath. And as Mirisha
was telling me, and she was a goldmine of info on Poland in the past ten years (we sat up way late one evening talking) although there is every shop you could think of and more, from Patagonia to Tommy, Body Works to Cartier.....sadly, for the average Pole they remain totally outside their means. The average middle mgr makes about $600 a month, cashier about $250.....that's in our dollar conversion rate of course....and electricty alone will take a minimum of 1\4 of that. They have come a long way, but are hardly fully in the capitalistic mode as yet. As she said, the Poles had musch more money in their pockets under the communists.....there was nothing in the shops to buy with it, but they had money. Now, there is everything in the shops, in the ads, on TV....and they couldn't begin to afford it. Which is worse? Not having what you don't know you are missing.....or having it thrust in your face and not be able to get it? Still a very repressed society it looked to me.
I went to Auschwitz and Birkenau the second day there. I can't really write much about that...maybe later. I felt I had to see it, and am glad I did. But it was horrid beyond description, all that I had thought to find, and so much more. I had steeled myself, and thought I was ready. There is no getting ready for that. The sheer size of it will stop you in your tracks. It was a horrible, rough, raw day.
Left Krakow headed for Vienna...which is where I am writing this from. What a damn difference a border or two can make!
Hope all is well with everyone......It's colder than can be lately!
ging