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29 October 2005 |
29 October 2005 |
23 October 2005 Recently Nicola and I have returned from a 16 day holiday in Poland. Our visit was not entirely of our own making Nicola was presenting "Evidence for an effect of sexual selection on avian pigmentation gene evolution" at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology's 10th Congress in Kraków, Poland. I suppose having said that, Nicola may not think that the entire trip was a holiday although I was there to enjoy myself. Having been aware of the conference for some time Nic and I managed to source some rather cheap flights on a low cost budget airline called Sky Europe, a Slovakian based airline, I must confess to being somewhat concerned about our carrier given the extremely competitive price of Ł17 each way excluding tax. My concern was misplaced, the journey being considerably more comfortable than our journey to Canada last year. The first week of our holiday was spent in Kraków whilst Nicola was attending the conference. Since my accompanying person's fee did not cover me attending all the lectures, I spent the week wandering around looking at the sights, there certainly are plenty of churches to visit and many really quite touristy things to do: a castle; art galleries; medieval fortifications and a Dragon's Cave, complete with fire breathing dragon statue at the entrance, the dragon apparently feasted on sheep and virgins which upset the locals greatly so some fabled heroic type or another came along and slew the poor beast, by tricking it into eating a sheep stuffed with tar and sulphur, giving the dragon an explosive case of indigestion. After the dragon's death, well maybe not immediately after, the cave set in the base of Wawel hill beneath the castle and cathedral, was turned into an inn and knocking shop presumably because the dragon had eaten all the virgins, the house of ill repute has now gone, so these days it does not cost so much to go in. I confess I did not visit half the religious buildings that I had the time to, despite the fact that the first two or three days had really quite mixed weather, ranging from very hot and burning sun to torrential rain just after I had applied the factor 30, it seemed to be that I was farthest away from any shelter when the heavens opened. Maybe I should have been in a church with all the nuns visiting John Paul II's former haunts. During my stay in Kraków there were several exciting opportunities for me to mix with the conference delegates, being under strict orders I decided not to cause too much trouble by bringing up the question of creationism and instead said very little indeed. One such event was a trip to the Ojców national park. These 'social events' it seems to me are designed to give delegates a small experience of the area around them without forcing them to either interact with the locals nor to stop them from talking shop for 5 minutes. Although I suppose that on some levels that is the whole point of a conference to network and discuss ideas and argue why your theory is better and lots more exciting than everyone else's. I guess you need a big ego to get on in academia. Anyway the Ojców National Park is the second smallest of Poland's 20 or so national parks. Our flying visit conducted by an interesting guide who seemingly has an obsession with Jurassic landscapes and “beautiful rolling countryside, which is typical of Wyżyna Krakowsko-Częstochowska” (Kraków-Częstochowa Upland). Anyway we got to see round one of King Kazimerz “the Great” Wielki former castles the Pieskowa Skała Castle, which was opened especially late for us to have a 20 minute run around whilst wearing felt overshoes on our feet so as not to mark the floors. The castle was guarded as it seems is most of Poland by armed policemen including at least one automatic weapon. The Polish police certainly seem to do a good line in wearing guns and having big sticks with which they may perhaps wallop people with. After the look around the castle we got to take a look at the Hercules bludgeon (a large piece of eroded limestone apparently created by the devil either that or perhaps the Jurassic landscape), the bus then arrived and transported us to a hostelry where Kielbasa and Piwo (sausages and beer) were served, for once the evolution based conversation mellowed, for 5 minutes anyway. The food was rather good it was too except for the rather large proportions of mustard that was served with it. In Kraków we were staying in student halls styled the Hotel Studencki Nawojka, it was somewhat prison like in its structure: the halls echoed loudly as you walked down them; the thick doors slammed tightly shut, followed by the loud clicks as the keys turned in the locks; the only thing that seemed to be absent was the bars on the windows, although if you had a ground floor room, the case was a little different. Although having said all of that it must have been a posh hotel as along with a towel folded neatly on the bed they also gave out little pieces of soap with the hotel name on. Indeed it was quite reasonable but for our neighbours coming in pissed at 3.30 am. Near our accommodation was the Park Dr. Henryk Jordan, named after a Cracovian Physician, this park not only contains busts of Polish luminaries such as Chopin, Marie Curie and the former Pope but also a population of red squirrels and green woodpeckers, the latter of which I did not manage to photograph despite one sitting by the side of one of the footpaths, looking quizzically up at us. I seemed to spend most of my time wandering around looking at things, mostly in the centre around all the churches and statues, also through Kazimeirz and surrounding suburbs. Surviving in Poland seems to be a relatively cheap affair, a pint of beer is less than Ł1 and a loaf of bread about Ł0.20 and very nice bread it was too, fruit and vegetables seem to be mostly locally grown, with very few imports. The day after the conference finished was Nicola's birthday we decided to spend another night in Kraków and do the what was probably the most touristy type thing that we did all holiday. We visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine, the mine is listed on UNESCO's 1st World List of Cultural and Natural Heritage and claims a history dating back until the middle ages. To enter the mine we had to climb down a rather large staircase going down 700 odd stairs 65 metres below the surface, the tour took us through several chambers showing former production methods, tools and the like. Several of the chambers had intricate salt carvings, including a couple of chapels and statues of great Poles, including Copernicus and of course the favourite Jana Pawła II. The mine is currently still producing salt from the groundwater that it pumps to the surface to prevent the mine from flooding. The culmination of our trip was a trip in the lift to the surface, the lift being more of a cage which was stuffed full with 4 layers of tourists and then hoisted the 135m to the surface by the big pit wheel at 4ms-1, much better than the bog standard lifts you find in shopping centres, hotels and the like. After our stay in Kraków we decided it would be nice to move away from the city and see if we could see a little of rural Poland. We decided to head south for the Tatra Mountains and Zakopane. Now that we had decided where it was that we wanted to go, the next problem we encountered was of course trying to transport ourselves to our intended destination. Having arrived at the train station on the morning of the 22nd. I was dispatched to a counter, whilst Nic guarded the bags. “Proszę, czy pani mówi po angielsku?” I asked in my best Polish/Scots accent, I suppose it was mostly Scots but I was trying. I shake of the head was the only response that I received. “Ahh” says I. Fortunately I had expected such situations to arise before I left the UK, so I had brought with me a notebook and a pen, with which I could attempt to communicate my wishes using pointing and some simple polish phrases copied from the phrasebook. I would have liked to claim that this thought was one of my own making but I had read in the lonely planet guide to Poland that this may be a sensible thing to do. This strategy worked quite well, and soon I was striding back towards Nic feeling quite pleased with myself (probably unjustifiably) clutching two tickets and a seat reservation in second class for the 10.56 to Zakopane. Still heady with my success at train ticket buying, I decided my next adventure should be buying stamps from the nearby post office. Unfortunately this did not go quite to plan. Having gone into the post office, I discovered that it was a confusing array of rooms and numbered counters, all with different signs above them. I tried looking for the key words in the phrase book without success, so having found the correct word for Stamps and knowing that I wanted to send pocztówka to Szkocja, I stood in the queue with only one person in it. When my turn came I moved forward and put my question, all I got was a blank look as if I was the most stupid person that had ever existed, that and I am not even just speaking English. She pointed to the left and said “in the next room”. Bloody miserable woman, just because I was making a complete mess of her language, now I had to ask twice. Bugger! Still I got there eventually. We got our train and what a bloody improvement over central trains, indeed even better than GNER. We got an old style compartment all to ourselves. It had 6 seats and sliding doors and curtains and a'thing. The head rests were at a height which was perfect for me, the neck things weren't digging into my shoulders and the seats we pretty wide too. The carriages and train were probably more than 35 years old, but it didn't really matter it went and it was clean and comfortable. It certainly was a proper railway in the proper way of things, the train made a satisfying noise as it moved over the expansion gaps in the rails, just like it should be. The journey to Zakopane took just over three hours to cover the 147km, it was quite a slow train as it had to keep changing direction (every thirty miles or so they would move the engine from one end of the train to the other) eventually it snaked its way up through the mountains to the end of the line in Zakopane. One thing that we had not organised before we went to Zakopane was any accommodation, we were assured by the various guides that we had read whilst in Kraków that it would be easy to find somewhere to stay. After having picked up a map of the area, we set about trying to find such a place. We had the names and addresses of a couple that we thought were approximately about our budget. Our first attempt was not a total success, we found the place OK, the door gate was locked and nobody answered the security buzzer. Then it started raining. Not ideal in the situation or conducive to happy place to stay finding. We wandered up towards the tourist information place, thinking that they may be able to help or at least it could be somewhere we could stand before we got too wet. On our way up we saw a sign on a house professing to have rooms, as we were standing outside discussing if we should give it a go, we were approached by a wee man who was speaking some sort of undefinable words at us. I cannot confess to having understood a single word that he said. He must have noticed our looks of complete bewilderment. His next attack was German, I was still reeling from the barrage of Polish verbosity, to even start to comprehend. Finally he said “Room, Want Room?” ”Aye”, I nodded in agreement. “My friend he speak English. Come.” Anyway before we really knew what was going on we found ourselves in the house next to the one we were about to try and landed up, having agreed a price of Ł16 per night, in a very nice, wooden panelled, double room on the top floor of a chalet style building. This was the only room we stayed in that had a TV and despite this was the nicest, cheapest and most centrally located, room we had all holiday. We then spent the next 4 days wandering up and down the valleys and mountains in the Tatrzański Park Narodwy (Tatra National Park). The first night having seen the hills from a distance, I decided that if Nic was going to have me skyting up and down in the damp, that I had better get myself some sort of walking stabilisers, being in a place that had more than its fair share of camping shops and the like, I purchased myself a pair of Polish poles from Poland, with Tungsten Carbide tips no less and at a fraction of the price I would pay in the UK. The first couple of days we had quite changeable weather, although the rain held off for the most part when we decided to go indoors. Still nothing like being outside in the rain amongst the trees and hills, a great reminder of home. The area was mostly forested with pine trees interspersed with the occasional deciduous varieties, plenty of Rowan trees for keeping off the witches. Our third day we decided to take it easy by taking the cable car to the top of Mt. Kasprowy Wierch and walking the four hours all the way down. It was a bit of a dreich morning but not too bad, so we set off on the hour long walk to the bottom of the cable car. Having bought a one way ticket and arrived at the top of the mountain without undue delay, we discovered where the cloudbase was. We couldn't see further than about 2 feet in front of our noses. Not looking good for a walk which takes you across a steep sided ridge, still we waited about 10 minutes and decided to check out the path, seeing if it was negotiable. A very short time after we began our decent, the clouds lifted, it ended up being the nicest of all our walks, despite the fact I fell on my arse on a muddy bit of the path about 200 yards from the end. On our final day we received some spectacular sunshine filled views from the top of a small mountain called Nosal. The final part of our holiday we spent in and around the Polish capital of Warsaw. It certainly has a lot more money than the rest of the country. Lots of large scale building projects are in progress or have recently been completed. The city is rather less grey than Kraków. Much of the old town has been rebuilt since it was obliterated during World War II. In Warsaw we stayed in yet another student hostel, this time a rather large tower block affair, with the Michelin Man on the roof. Only 15 minutes walk from the main train station and easily located without having seen a map of the area for 48 hours before we travelled, some people however do not always trust in my sense of direction. Whilst in Warsaw we visited yet another of Poland's National Parks, the Kampinos National Park. This one was rather different to the others that we had previously visited. Mostly covered in oak trees, the park is home to lots of different beasties, Nic and I saw amongst others, a small lizardy thing, a snake and a middle spotted woodpecker, which I managed to photograph although not very well. When we visited the ground was somewhat sandy, although I suspect this is not always the case given that there had not been much rain in the area for sometime. Apparently the ground is usually swampy this was much better for getting home with clean boots. Eventually we had to return home since we had told people at work that we would, next time maybe we will forget to say when we are coming back. We enjoyed a good time in Poland, although I would advise you not to visit if you are either vegetarian or lactose intolerant, grilled meat with milk based produce a speciality, that is unless you want to subsist entirely with brassica based diet. The beer in Poland was rather good and cheap, which is something I can recommend. Hopefully I will get my photos up soon, if they come back in a better state than they did before. Add Comment |
23 October 2005 |
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