Post by Kim on Jan 14, 2002 10:55:20 GMT -5
14 January
Krakow, Poland
Warsaw. What can I tell you? Except I had planned on three nights there, stayed one and count myself lucky to be out. Miserable. A great deal of it is my own fault I will wager, but never the less it was the worst place I think I have ever been. I can not make heads nor tails of the language. It is cyrillic (sp) in basis, with nary a hint of Latin or Germanic and nothing looks remotely like any words I ever saw. They seemto have a real problem with vowels! Like in, they don't use them much. Anyway, nothing is in English or German
even, not even the folks in the Tourist info place spoke English (!) and it was just impossible to manage. I just felt very very alone there. Think if I was traveling with someone, to share the misery and frustration it might have been okay.
Add to this it is an ugly town. Full of soviet era monstrosity buildings, smog like you wouldn't believe, and looks just like you'd expect a soviet bloc place to look. One redeeming thing is the 'old town' which was 90% destroyed during the war (Hitler's gang not us) and they have rebuilt and restored it to how it looked then. And have done a great job of that. Also rebuilt the Royal Castle in that area. I did go in, just beautiful, but again no English so wasn't sure just what I was seeing. Add to that huge 'gangs' of very grim, glaring guards at every turn....whew!
Loads of police and even more military presence patrolling everywhere...thought this was supposed to be a 'democratic'free nation now? I found it awful, and left this morning determined to hit Krakow to see Auswitz in the morning and then out of Poland.....I was NOT having any fun at all here, so no need to be somewhere and be miserable. Nothing says I need to stay here, so that was my plan.
Oh, one last thing about Warsaw, going back to my hotel yesterday, on the most 'main' street of town, the 'Royal Way' I pass four 'kids' 16 or so, standing on the sidewalk playing around with a 9mm.....handing it back and forth, brandishing it about! I swear! And trust me, it was no toy, I have one and I damn well know what they look like. Is it legal to 'carry' there I wonder? They obviously didn't seem a bit concerned about being seen with it. Yikes!
Feeling much better this evening, and even feeling better about Poland. What a difference a 2 hour train ride can make. But.......you'll have to wait till my next note to find out why!
ging - who is still not comfortable in Poland, but at least my antennas have gone down just a bit
Krakow, Poland
Warsaw. What can I tell you? Except I had planned on three nights there, stayed one and count myself lucky to be out. Miserable. A great deal of it is my own fault I will wager, but never the less it was the worst place I think I have ever been. I can not make heads nor tails of the language. It is cyrillic (sp) in basis, with nary a hint of Latin or Germanic and nothing looks remotely like any words I ever saw. They seemto have a real problem with vowels! Like in, they don't use them much. Anyway, nothing is in English or German
even, not even the folks in the Tourist info place spoke English (!) and it was just impossible to manage. I just felt very very alone there. Think if I was traveling with someone, to share the misery and frustration it might have been okay.
Add to this it is an ugly town. Full of soviet era monstrosity buildings, smog like you wouldn't believe, and looks just like you'd expect a soviet bloc place to look. One redeeming thing is the 'old town' which was 90% destroyed during the war (Hitler's gang not us) and they have rebuilt and restored it to how it looked then. And have done a great job of that. Also rebuilt the Royal Castle in that area. I did go in, just beautiful, but again no English so wasn't sure just what I was seeing. Add to that huge 'gangs' of very grim, glaring guards at every turn....whew!
Loads of police and even more military presence patrolling everywhere...thought this was supposed to be a 'democratic'free nation now? I found it awful, and left this morning determined to hit Krakow to see Auswitz in the morning and then out of Poland.....I was NOT having any fun at all here, so no need to be somewhere and be miserable. Nothing says I need to stay here, so that was my plan.
Oh, one last thing about Warsaw, going back to my hotel yesterday, on the most 'main' street of town, the 'Royal Way' I pass four 'kids' 16 or so, standing on the sidewalk playing around with a 9mm.....handing it back and forth, brandishing it about! I swear! And trust me, it was no toy, I have one and I damn well know what they look like. Is it legal to 'carry' there I wonder? They obviously didn't seem a bit concerned about being seen with it. Yikes!
Feeling much better this evening, and even feeling better about Poland. What a difference a 2 hour train ride can make. But.......you'll have to wait till my next note to find out why!
ging - who is still not comfortable in Poland, but at least my antennas have gone down just a bit