Poland - back to big populations!

POLAND 31 July 2009

Poland - a land of over 39 million people!

Lithuania done with we headed for the Polish border, a mere 90 minutes away, once again driving through the decaying border posts and being waved on by a single desultory bored copper, we ended up at the lake surrounded town of Augustow, capital of Podlasia in eastern Poland.

We overnighted here to catch up on emails, the town itself was a dot on the Baltic trade routes ‘til 1557 when a certain King Zygment allowed it title of a town and it prospered but not for long as a string of fires, plagues and invasions decimated the place, some towns were just really unlucky, happily its now grown back to be of regional importance as a touristy place.. Next day we headed for Bison country, yes really! The Bielowiesa national park on the border with Belarus, harbours the only surviving European Bison herd along with Tarpan (horse like animal) and the Zubron a strange cross cow/bison. We stayed at the village of the same name and were in time for a small music festival with Belarus, Ukraine and Polish groups singing, plus a polish “spice Girls’ group-different though as these girls could sing. Following day we opted to walk around the old English style Tsars palace park, this was inaugurated at the same time a new Palace was being built for the Tsar Alexander 3rd in 1889. There had been already a royal hunting lodge here since 1845, and unlike the Palace, was still standing. The palace being gradually destroyed over 2 or 3 wars and finally demolished in the 60’s. The park had many introduced overseas shrubs and trees (about 200) including various species of pine, oak, yew and others. We spent a pleasant time wandering through it. The actual royal hunting area was huge and now forms the Bielowieza national park which occupies both sides of the Belarus-Polish border. The original inhabitants of the area were from the east which could explain why everything here seems curiously Russian at times. The actual “main street” is dead straight for 2km, we managed half of it before cutting across country and making a circular tour of it back disused railway line and terminal just by the old palace gates, it’s interesting that there is no mention of this railway anywhere as royal transport, logging transport or perhaps a more sinister usage, especially as it seems to be a purpose built branch line . Well, bison day was not quite as exciting as we thought, the park reserve cum zoo was a little sad with very large enclosures for animals but we saw little of the deer, “wild” boar and a couple of Zubrons which are 50 50 cow/bison! To be fair we did see the magnificent bison and were suitably impressed. We should add here that the whole point is the preservation of the species that became all but extinct with the main herds now in Poland, Russia and the Ukraine. You can take a special guided tour into the protected area but its expensive plus you’re not guaranteed to see anything! We were then off on the road for Lublin, only 220kms away, but with the poor roads and endless trucks it took us well over 4 hours . Tired ,we hardly noticed how ordinary the campsite was and perhaps niggardly didn’t really look at the town, anxious to be on our way to Krakow. Again a fairly long haul timewise, this time took us 5 hours but much improved road surface even if we seemed to waiting every 30kms for road gangs to finish the next bit for us! Camping Clepardia in Krakow was like an oasis, free washing machine and wireless internet, clean services, bus at the door, grassy quiet sites - who can ask for more? We really loved Krakow, a beautiful old town dating from the 1300’s and although only a small amount of city walls remain they’re well preserved and along them is displayed a complete history of the walls and towers. We were surprised to find that each tower was originally manned by trades or “guilds” of butchers, torterers, (?) carpenters, haberdashers, printers, bookbinders and so on who defended their “own tower” in times of conflict. Mind you the mind boggles at the oncoming hordes being thwarted by hails of dangerous leather gloves, or prime cuts of sirloin! The old city square must be the largest we’ve seen on this trip with a huge “cloth hall’ dating back 600 years and still in use now as a tourist stall market flanked by a city tower of great age.

Our second day in Krakow arrived with lots of showery weather so we decided to bring our visit to the “Salt Mines” – about 13kms out of the city, forward a day.  Off we set via 2 buses taking forever in Krakow’s terrible traffic and on Krakow’s terrible roads!  We queued for 45 mins then waited another 30 mins before our tour in English began.  The entry fee at 64 Zlts was the second most expensive “touristy” thing we have done on this trip, the cost having nearly increased by 100% since the 2007 Guide to Eastern Europe was issued!

Never mind, we made our way down over 360 wooden steps where, if you looked thru stairwell in the centre at the beginning of your descent it made for a giddy feeling as the abyss below was around 40 stories down!  Only 1% of the mine is accessible currently via one shaft out of 4 and the visit took us from 65 m below ground to 160 m below through three levels..out of the actual 9 levels dug.  Well built tunnels supported by massive pine logs, shoot out in every direction and it was comforting to know we had a guide!  It was VAST, never ending with various little “scenarios” set up to give us idea what it was like to mine salt up to 600 years ago. We saw seams of pure white salt and many “cauliflowers” of salt. Which we were encouraged to taste. Of course religion played a big part in day to day working and there are many of carvings plus a few chapels along the way –some intimate and one or two quite large.  Beyond the working mine lay a vast cathedral (regularly used) and  dining area (used for weddings etc) all deep underground.

Today was socialist realism day with a visit to Nowa Huta, a pre-planned megalithic Socialist city just outside Krakow. Started in 1949, the layout was deliberately built with huge wide streets, parks and endless apartment blocks with small dark shops underneath, workers crèches, playgardens for kids, proletereat theatre and trams - all under the watchful eye of the Lenin steelworks and statues.  The irony is when you give the blocks a coat of paint and let tenants own them, tart up the parks, replant the flower beds and pretend the steelworks (now mitta-steel) doesn’t exist and you have a surprisingly welcoming town.

We then took one of the trams back to Kamirez - the Jewish quarter near the old town and wandered around, not so much of interest here for us but we are mindful of what it meant for the Jewish nation here.

A rare treat for us as we ate out at a rather kitsch but inexpensive local food restaurant.  Wild Boar pate followed by white cheese and potato dumplings with a local beer for two of us just 20 euros.

As our visit to Poland draws to a close we can’t leave without visiting Auschwitz- strangely we hadn’t realised that the polish town of Oswecim was renamed as Auschwitz  when Germany occupied Poland. This, we did full of trepidation – must one go, should one go etc etc.  We’re glad we did although we feel we pretty well knew most of the facts beforehand.  However, as the “museum” told us at what is called Auschwitz 1, the fine detail was on display from original inception of the camp that was to house Polish “political” prisoners only which covered intellectuals, artists, professionals etc to its later “use” as a detention/prison camp finally leading up to infamous end as a concentration/extermination camp.  Although this wasn’t the place that the worst happened that was at Birkenau otherwise known as Auschwitz 2.  That’s where the mass exterminations took place in horrendous numbers.  However, the worst for us were the cabinets full of little children’s clothes and the displays of 1000’s of old suitcases which bore the name and address of the individual.  It was a harrowing experience and, as the guide said, a true “appreciation” of the place can only happen in winter, whilst the sun shone it was hard to take in all the true horrors of the place – Auschwitz 2 being massive with barbed wire fences stretching into the distance and the brick “dormitories” still remaining one side with only the chimneys standing on the other where the wooden buildings once stood – some having been “rebuilt”.  We don’t want to go into any more detail other than it goes without saying that this type of genocide should never  never happen again – but should any type of genocide happen in this world?  Why cant we all be tolerant of each others race, religion, beliefs and just “get on” – life is too too short for anything else.  

We spent a couple of days at Bielsko-Biala in the Silesian foothills near the Czech Republic border, The town itself gave us a couple of hours wandering around . There is a preserved city castle dating from the 1400s’ but rebuilt  several times and a superb late 19^th century theatre plus a vibrant pedestrian area. The rest of the time was spent reading, walking and swimming before saying farewell to Poland. 

As we leave we’d like to offer our overall impressions of the country and its’ people.  A flat country – very rural at least a ton of wheat fields all over the place.  The people are a bit like Italians, fast drivers, no lack of initiative when overtaking (unlike the Norwegians and Swedish!) – invade one’s space ie: pitch their tent right next to you, jump queues, push you on the bus etc.  But a people marked in history with having being invaded a million times but somehow remaining positive but far too catholic for our tastes (in the religious sense!).  The roads are definitely the worst in Europe and as the guys at the camp site in Krakov said “and we are proud of it too!”  Perhaps with Euro money coming in, they will improve but also it may increase their cost of living especially if they adopt the Euro as their currency, we believe that Poland was the cheapest country in Europe (supermarket, fuel etc).  Overall we enjoyed Poland for the short 9 day stay but we probably wouldn’t bother to return.