Poland: Wroclaw

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Sunday 4th June

A few sad goodbyes were said this morning as we packed up to leave the beautiful Czech Republic. We hopped onto the 'toy train' in our little village and headed out towards a town called Nachod from where we took a bus to the Polish town of Kudowa, and then onto Wroclaw. We past through the border control, showed passports and suddenly all the scenery and buildings changed! Just like that. Country number 4 - Poland. On the train we met an Ozzie girl who'd kind of got herself a bit 'lost'. She hadn't intended to be i this area, but was...?? She came along with us into Poland and we really enjoyed speaking to someone in our own language! At Wroclaw, our destination, we wished her well as she continued on her way. We booked into a hostel not far from the train station. This place great but is run by a lady who I reckon still lives back in the times of communism. What a severe, stern piece of work she was. Absolutely no facial expressions and I doubt she'd take any nonsense from anyone. It may all be a huge facade, who knows, and she may be a real softie on the inside. Very hard to tell. Anyway, we foud our room and were pleasantly surprised at how cosy it was. We were famished, so the first thing was to find some food. As we walked out the front door, our Polish 'ogre' grabbed David and demanded the key!! Apparently we have to hand it in each time we leave the hostel but she hadn't told us that! We obliged and went out.

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Monday 5th June

After a wake-up coffee and checking in for another night, we planned to hit the town of Wroclaw. The great plans were upset immediately as the hostel was fully booked for today! Our 'ogre' receptionist had omited to tell us this last night. So... up the stairs we went and packed up [check out is at 10am], and then had the task of finding somewhere else to go. A real pain when you already have your day planned out. Fortunately we'd heard of another place, which also fortunately happened to be in the same street as our first place. Even more fortunately it was directly opposite where we'd been, but the sign isn't too obvious. We went in, up this ot so savoury stairway, thinking 'no way, this looks dodgy'!! In we walked and what a great hostel awaited us. One thing we've learnt, is that you can't judge a place by it's outside appearance. The war torn and graffiti filled walls of a place outside, must still be explored on the inside. There's another world within them. Eventually we managed to 'hit the town' and to be quite honest neither of us was particularly impressed with the place. The only real drawcard here is the totally restored Old Town Square - the second largest of it's kind in Europe. It's really colourful and wonderful bit is totally surrounded by a dirty, depressed grey and drab city. Most buildigs are still post WWII, some still with evidence of the bombings and gunfire. Only 1 day is needed to see this city, so we leave tomorrow - for Krakow.