Carry the Bags

I really have to stop using alliteration in my subject headings!

Yesterday we arrived in Prague and wandered down to the main square. Last time we were here it was winter and therefore very quiet. This time Chris described it as being like the Ekka. We could hardly walk through the crowds (and the chanting Hare Krishna strangely). I don’t know that I have ever seen so many tourists in one place.

But the great thing about tourists is that they usually stick to the touristy streets. And in Prague if you plunge into the small streets that run off the main ones, there are very few people and the buildings are still beautiful.

We had a great Czech meal of dumplings, schnitzel and goulash and are very glad we came back to see if we liked the city more than last time when we were in a fog of jet lag.

Polish people seem quite law abiding when it comes to crossing the road. Rarely does anyone walk against the red man.

Flowers are important. So many people are carrying bunches of flowers and the single red rose is extremely popular.

There are more daschunds per head of population than anywhere else I have ever seen.

Polish trains are very slow.

The asian food thing hasn’t hit. Pataks Curry paste is more than $10 AUD a jar. A small sachet of chow mein sauce is $4 AUD.

The butter is unsalted.

An icecream is a “lody”.

We are off to the Czech Republic tomorrow.

We are in Wroclaw, which is a smaller city in Poland with a very nice town square. We are trying to chill out here for a couple of days rather than frantically seeing everything.

Today we saw musical performances from two rather different groups. The first group was three accordian players who were amazing. They made the accordians sound like an orchestra and were incredibly passionate about their music. We stood and watched them for ages and were even tempted to buy a CD. The accordian requires so much dexterity- the accordians that this trio were playing required either buttons or a keyboard to be played on either side at the same time, the bellows to be worked and there was also a part on the top to play other notes by blowing into them (or so it appeared). I don’t know how they mange to perform all these things at once.  It really was one of those very special moments.

The second group were a bit more bizarre … a mariachi band in Poland playing Jason Donavan’s “Sealed with a Kiss”. Let’s say no more about that one.

Poland, and Krakow in particular, is full of nuns! You see a few priests, but mostly nuns of all shapes and sizes and in habits of all colours and creeds.

There are some very young novices as well, some looked only about 17.

It always makes me wonder why so many more young people in countries like Poland and Italy are willing to go into the church. These countries aren’t particularly poor but I suppose it is just that the church features so much more heavily in every day life.

I have put some pictures on Flickr …

The first time Chris and I travelled together, we had lots of big arguments- Prague, Vienna, Berlin etc.

This time we haven’t had any big arguments, which is very good. However, usually I never get sick of Chris’ company and he says that he doesn’t get sick of me. But we have discovered that you can have too much of a good thing. Sometimes we get to the stage where we say ok “stop talking now”.

I think it has been particularly bad when we have been saying in hostels that aren’t very social and therefore only have each other to talk to, and as we have been together all day, there isn’t much news to tell. Since we have been in more chatty places, we like each other again!

I am not completely against grafitti in all its forms. I was most disturbed to hear that Melbourne painted over all the stencil work before the Commonwealth Games.

However, what I will never understand is the mindset of people who have to make their mark on important historical objects and places. I was quite upset to see that the Eastside Gallery of the Berlin Wall was covered in grafitti. I don’t know why you are wanting to put your name over an art work.

But the one that really shocked me is the grafitti in the barracks at Auschwitz. That is incomprehensible and unforgivable. And a lot of it is written in languages other than Polish so you know that the person who did it is probably not a kid and should know better.

That is my rant for today.

Poland- land of badly translated english brochures and signs! Our favourite so far is “Please be taking care of your belongings or you may be subject to uncontrolled dematerialisation”
We’ve been in Poland since last weekend- first in Warsaw and then in Krakow. Tomorrow we go to Wroclaw.

Warsaw was ok but raining a lot so we spent a lot of the first day at the shopping centre! Then we tried to go to the Uprising Museum but the line was about two hours long (more about lining up in Poland later). We decided we would come back when the admission was not free. I know that seems the opposite of what we should be doing but it was a choice of standing in the rain for two hours or coming back the next day and paying 4 zloty (about $1.50 Aud). We did come back on Monday and the museum was very good.

Other than that all we did in Warsaw was wander around the old town and go to see Pirates of the Caribbean.

Krakow is the tourist mecca of Poland. It is quite pretty but I think that some of these cities start to look a bit the same after a while. We went to the salt mine yesterday which is just out of town. There we lined up for 2.5 hours to do a 2 hour tour 140m underground. The cathedral was amazing and completely made of salt- even the chandeliers.

Today we went to Auschwitz. It is one of those places that makes you wonder how humans can be so cruel to one another. The size of Birkenau is astounding and so is the amount of people killed there. There isn’t much more to say on that.

Tomorrow we head to Wroclaw, mainly because Prague is too crowded on the weekend. It is supposed to be another picturesque town in Southern Poland. I am hoping we can get out into the countryside a little.

Watch out for that uncontrolled dematerialisation folks!