28th October
We all woke up at five in the morning as Niko, Isabella and Martin had to leave very early for work. We had breakfast and said our goodbyes and they were kind enough to let us stay a bit longer to pack up and leave. We went back to bed for a couple of hours and then got up and got ready. We left at about midday. We decided to go through Slovakia to get to Poland to see if there was anything interesting there, so we followed the road north east. The drive was un-interesting - the flatter Austria got the more industrial it became - and after some hours driving we got tired and stopped at the side of the road in a small town (Neutal) just near the Hungarian border. The weather started to cloud over and it was dark by about four o'clock. Thankfully Niko gave us a load of films on our laptop so we watched a movie in bed and had an early night.
29th October
Woke up early and set off towards Slovakia. The rest of the drive through Austria was fine and we crossed the border straight on to the motorway around Bratislava. The city looked huge and horrible and within five minutes of being on the massive ringroad we saw a crash. We instantly felt uncomfortable and had a bad feeling about Slovakia and got off the motorway as soon as possible. I wanted to give the country a chance so we came off at Trnava and planned to head into the hills for a look around. We were driving through Trnava and suddenly realised we were going the wrong way down a one way street (the sign posts were very unclear.) We pulled over about ten metres after the no entry sign to turn around and the bloody police pulled up behind us. They spoke no English but we managed to understand they wanted a 150 euro fine. Thank god we hadn't been to the bank in a while and we only had 10 euros in the wallet. After a chat about where we were going and us trying to explain we had no money I opened the wallet to show them the 10 euros and they excepted, saying it was the 'minimum fine'. They gave us a ticket and then said to follow them. We followed them through the city, unsure of why - when we saw the 'police station' signs we got quite nervous they were arresting us - but it turned out they were just guiding us the right way out of town. Which was quite nice. But this put us off Slovakia even more and we decided there and then to just drive through to Poland. We didn't want to pay the tax for using the motorway so we followed the smaller road going exactly the same route. The country side around was probably once very beautiful but it seems that they have destroyed it all by building a power plant on every hill. The weather was grim, the driving was appauling and the sprawling cities just merged into one another and never ended. We were not having a good time. Just near the Polish border we turned off into the mountains to try and find a wild camp for the night. The scenery did get a bit prettier but even the villages in the mountains sprawled out so there wasn't any countryside left - which meant no wild camping. We didn't fancy staying in any villages as the Slovakians we saw didn't look like the friendliest bunch of people. Eventually we decided to try a Pension - like a B&B - and we followed the signs down a track for a few kilometres until we found a big house with a front drive in a town called Staskov. We went in and found a lady with her two kids. She spoke no English and after her trying to give us a room we finally managed to explain we just wanted to park outside her house! She thought it was a bit weird but she seemed to understand and she didn't say a price for us to pay so instead we bought a beer from her. After drinking a beer and cooking dinner we went to bed. We finally found a country we don't want to revisit!
Snaps from the window of Bratislava. ^
30th October
We left early and headed straight to the border. Whether or not it was in our heads, we found Poland to be instantly friendlier and prettier. The man in the petrol station was lovely and we had an enjoyable drive to Krakow. We had already looked up a campsite only a few kilometres from the centre of the city and we made our way there easily. The campsite was nice - it was grassy and had trees and there were three other campers there! We were surprised by both these things. It was early afternoon when we arrived so after lunch and and a lovely hot shower it almost dark. The sky did actually clear in the evening and we got to see quite a nice a nice sun set. I was hopeful for a sunny day tomorrow!
Breakfast. ^
Campsite. ^
31st October
The morning was misty but there were clear blue skies behind it! We wrapped up warm and ventured out to the bus station. There were about nine different buses we could have caught and for some reason we got onto a random coach. Luckily it went the right way and we got dropped off about a kilometre from the centre. We followed the river along until we got to Wawel Castle. We went into the old town and got to the main square - which is the biggest in Europe. It was very beautiful and impressive, although too early for anything to be open or happening. We wandered the long way around to the old Jewish Quarter - which is now the trendy part of town - and got a coffee in the small square there which also had a small flea market. The sun was shining and we sat outside and watched the people. All the young people here are very trendy - we could be in London - and loads of people were talking English to each other, which was weird. We walked on and followed the river back around to the castle, which we looked around without going inside. We also went back to the big square. which was a bit more lively now with break dancers and other buskers. After all this walking we were hungry so we headed back to the Jewish Quarter where we had seen an old lady at a street stall eating pork knuckle for breakfast. We wanted something cheap and local and when we got back to the square there were quite a few street stalls open selling lunch. We headed to the one where all the old men and builders were, who all seemed to be eating lentil stew with sausages in and half a loaf of bread. We pointed at someone else eating to order and got a huge bowl each, with the bread, for less than three pounds, FOR BOTH! It was delicious! We sat outside with all the old men and it warmed us through. Feeling Polish we headed to the nearest bar and ordered a large beer and drank it sitting in the last of the sunshine. What a great day. Krakow is a stunning city and it's pretty small to walk around and I would love to spend more time here - highly recommended. We walked back through the city, which was busy at rush hour, and after buying a few (very cheap) beers in an off-licence we found the bus stop. The bus we wanted was packed and the driver seemed too busy to take any money from us so we got the bus for free. Back at camp we sat outside drinking our beers for a little while until it got too cold and we got into the van and had dinner. We watched another film and went to sleep.
'No playing with toy boats in the river.'
Amazing lunch! ^
We had a slow morning at the campsite - laying in our cosy bed until we dared to get out into the cold! We had breakfast and then set off towards Oswiecim - better known by its German name; Auschwitz. The drive was only about 70 kilometres but it was quite slow as all the towns seemed to be full of traffic and people. We found out it was All Saints Day and all of Poland were out visiting the graveyards with huge bunches of flowers. The streets were lined with people selling the flowers and it seemed like a lovely public holiday. We planned to find somewhere to stay the night before visiting Auschwitz but we followed the signs hoping to find somewhere to spend the night but as we round a bend we were confronted with an infamous sight. An enormous space enclosed in electric barbed wire fencing housing wooden cabins and brick buildings and a train track going through a main gate right the way in. Auschwitz is actually 2 main sites which are called Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is this second site we had driven up to. We decided to visit this site today and the main Auschwitz 1 the next day. Entry is free and as soon as we entered through the main gates we felt profoundly effected. The horrors of the holocaust are of course well documented but to be on the site where 2 million people were murdered was beyond powerful. Auschwitz-Birkenau was built about 2 years after the first site and made purely for the purpose of the Nazi's "Final Solution." It was a Death Camp, where the trains, filled with Jewish families, pulled up and after looting all of their belongings an SS doctor went through them selecting the ones still able to work (about 25%) and ordering the rest to march the short walk directly to the Gas Chambers. This was usually about 75% of every train load and every child below the age of 14. They were told they being showered to avoid mass panic and 2000 at a time were ordered to strip and enter a hall fixed with fake shower hoses. The Nazis blew up these gas chambers and the crematoriums as they retreated to cover the evidence of their unimaginable crimes so today all that remains of these are ruins.
The few who were deemed fit and able to work were housed in wooden barracks, mainly old horse stables, and in every barrack where once 50 horses had lived over 250 humans were forced to inhabit. We walked around Auschwitz-Birkenau in mostly silence reading the information cards and our purchased guide and trying to understand and answer all the questions the Holocaust asks. After 2 hours of wondering around the site and respectively conducted museum we returned to our van.
We drove towards the site of Auschwitz 1 (3km away) and stopped in the car park for it. The man in the booth said we were able to stay there over night for a small fee so we paid it, cooked diner and went to bed pretty exhausted.
The gas chambers. ^
Camping in the car park. ^
2nd November
Auschwitz 1 is probably the more "famous" site and has the famous inscription over the main gate "Arbeit Macht Frei" which trantslates to the hideous lie "Work Brings Freedom." Inside is a much smaller site than Auschwitz-Birkenau and preserved with many of the barracks housing part of the museum and the Holocaust story. I'm not going to go into detail of everything that was in the museum partly out of respect for the millions who were murdered but also because it is well documented and also it wouldn't do it justice to write it down here. However, a few things hit us more profoundly than others and these included a room filled with womens hair. (The Nazis shaved all prisoners heads on entry and used the hair to make cloth.) A room filled with childrens clothes and a "hospital" where Nazi doctors undertook sick and depraved experiments on prisoners mainly young twins, dwarfs or Roma Gypsy. Auschwitz was also used to attempt to wipeout the Roma, homosexual and mentally and physically disabled as well as the Jewish poplulation. We left feeling moved and different. We drove on in the direction of Czech Rupublic and stopped in a forested lay-by, away from the road, near a town called Wodzislaw Slaski. It was raining and got dark very early so we had another film night.
Wild camp. ^
3rd November
Another early start towards another border, this time into Czech Republic. We stopped before the border in a McDonalds (they have free wifi) and got given a free coffee without buying anything. We're not sure why, but we stayed for a while and used the internet and then went and did a massive shop. Poland is ridiculously cheap and we bought about two weeks worth of food as well as everything we've been meaning to buy for ages for less than forty pounds! We looked up a couple of campsites that were open at this time of year (most aren't) and headed towards one near Zdarske vrchy - a nature park in eastern Czech Republic. We were instantly blown away by the scenery across the border; all gorgeous rolling, forested hills. The drive wasn't too long and we found the campsite along a beautiful winding road, but annoyingly the barrier was down. The campsite was big and it looked deserted but there was a grassy patch under some trees just outside and we thought we'd just stay there for the night. It was already getting dark and after hanging out for a bit we started to cook dinner. Just as it got dark we heard some dogs barking nearby and saw a big torch light coming towards us. We opened the van and said hello to Peter and his two massive Water-dogs. He was the campsite owner, from The Netherlands, and he said he is normally open at this time of year but he doesn't have any running water at the moment. He invited us in anyway but we already had our dinner cooking so couldn't drive the van. We chatted a while, he was a lovely man, and he said we were welcome in tomorrow if we wanted. He also told us we were very lucky this year as normally by this time they were in at least half a metre of snow! After saying good night we finished cooking and had dinner and watched another film. Don't know what we'd do without all these movies!
Camping outside the campsite. ^
4th November
We woke up bloody freezing - can't believe it's not snowing! We were getting ready and washing up outside the van when Peter came past in his car and said hello. He told us about a nearby castle that we should visit and showed us some roads on the map that were a beautiful drive. We took his advice and drove the very scenic drive to the castle. As it's November the castle was closed for visitors but even from the outside it was very impressive and we went for a short walk around the imposing castle walls. Back in the castle car park we had eggs for breakfast sitting amoungst the pine trees. For the rest of the afternoon we drove a long round trip back to the campsite. The nature park is stunning with areas of ancient forest and green fields. We stopped in a small town to have a look around but it was so cold and extremely windy that we couldn't take it for very long. We got back to the site and Peter gave us a tour of his land. He moved here nearly eight years ago and the campsite is an old kids summer camp. There are six holiday houses, about thirty small cabins, a huge building with a restaurant and bar and a big swimming pool. He's slowly re-building it all himself and it was really cool to see. After wandering around his endless land for a while we returned back to the van and had a few beers. We were sheltered from the wind here so I even put a chair out and sat outside! In the evening we had a delicious pork stew and we made friends with five cats who also lived here. They were very cute but seemed more interested in out dirty dishes than us. Another movie night!
Castle. ^
One of the many pretty villages we drove through. ^
In the campsite. ^
5th November
We said goodbye to Peter in the morning and set off towards Cesky Krumlov. It's a town that is in the guide book and said to be very pretty and one of the main tourist attractions in Czech Republic. This isn't normally the kind of thing we head towards but it's November now so there aren't so many tourists. The drive was quite long and when Pete got tired I drove for a bit. This didn't really work out though and after about an hour we swapped back because Pete was more stressed when I was driving than when he was! The drive was lovely - this country is truly beautiful - but we were on main roads and couldn't find anywhere to stop. As we were getting nearer to Cesky Krumlov we came off the big roads and managed to find a small lay-by in the forest that we thought would be okay for one night. It was pretty much dark by then anyway and we settled down for dinner and another film. During the evening we kept hearing gun shots - it's the start of hunting season - which made it a bit scary to go for a wee in the night. It also started raining and didn't stop all night.
Scenic driving. ^
Cooking dinner. ^
6th November
We woke up at about six in the morning and it was still pitch black. Pete was worried that we would be bogged in the muddy forest after all the rain so we got up in the dark to make sure we weren't. We were fine but we headed towards Cesky Krumlov anyway and stopped in the first petrol station we saw to lie down a bit longer. In the end we couldn't get back to sleep and when it started to get light we went into the petrol station cafe for a coffee. We hung out here for a while and then went to find a car park so we could look around the town. As usual the guide books explain a small, beautiful town but when you arrive by van you find a massive urban sprawl, which is very dissapointing. We found a small car park near the centre and wandered into the old town. In this case we let the guide books off as it was absolutely gorgeous. This early in the morning, with the sun shining and no people around, it was a magical town. A powerful river bends around a fantastic castle and a cluster of colourful houses. We walked around for a couple of hours taking it in and then went back to the van to drive towards Sumava National Park. We got to the lake about 20 kilometres away which looked very dramatic with the now low, black sky hanging over it. We stopped for breakfast near the lake and then carried on driving a very scenic drive past huge mountains, gushing rivers and fields of black cows. We were heading towards a campsite that we knew was open at the other end of the national park, in a town called Besiny, and we arrived at about lunch time. We were very happy to find the campsite actually open but a bit annoyed to find you had to pay extra for hot showers - the main reason we were there! We paid anyway and scrubbed ourselves clean. In the toilet block there was also a room with a radio and several tables and chairs. As we were the only people on the campsite we took our laptop in there and made ourselves a home cinema. It was raining again and we had a lovely afternoon watching movies and drinking beer. It was so nice to be inside a warm room.
Cesky Krumlov. ^
From the van - Sumava National Park. ^
Campsite. ^
This morning we enjoyed a lie-in and had eggs for breakfast in our 'room' at the campsite. It was a cloudy day but not too cold and we wanted to explore the area so we set off in the van in search of a walk. A few kilometres away we could see a big castle on the horizon (as you can almost everywhere in Bohemia) and we followed the signs towards it. We found a beautiful old castle with a huge arched bridge and an empty moat you could walk around. It wasn't open to look inside but we walked through the surrounding woods and tried to see if there was a way in. There wasn't. We saw on the sign post that there was another castle nearby that was the highest in Bohemia. We decided to drive there and after another stunning drive we found ourselves at the top of a hill looking up at another dominating castle. The views around were awesome and we had a very scenic lunch outside the castle. I can't over exaggerate how beautiful the countryside is here. After lunch we stopped off in the nearest town; Susice, to go to Lidl. We were going to Germany tomorrow so we wanted to stock up on booze whilst it's cheap. We got a crate of beer for about seven pounds... Anyway after this we headed back towards camp, stopping for a short walk in the forest whilst the sun was out. Back at the campsite we tidied and sorted the van and went back to our 'room' for some more drinking and blog writing. Another lovely day and evening.
Castle 1. ^
Castle 2 with scenic lunch. ^
Around. ^
Campsite. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment