Kracow through the looking glass

Well, we've just spent a lovely few days in Kracow, for which Richard very kindly flew over from London to join us, and helped us investigate some of the famed nightlife. In fact, his investigations of the nightlife of Friday night were so successful he was unable to investigate too much additional nightlife until Sunday night (although we did find a cosy little cigar lounge which kept us entertained for a while on Saturday evening).

After a small amount of snow on Friday, Saturday warmed up a bit which turned things a bit slushy and wet. We sloshed to the university which was where Copernicus (hero of physicists) studied, and some time later, the future Pope John Paul II.

On Sunday to a nearby salt mine which has been mined since the 12th century and is now full of salt carvings, including a bas relief of da Vinci's Last Supper in a huge underground cathedral. Our guide seemed to be sick of her own jokes.

On Sunday evening we entered a bar called Alchemy in the old jewish quarter. On one wall was a wardrobe, and at the back of the wardrobe, a looking-glass. We stepped through the looking glass into a whole different room full of wonderous things. Well, actually just more places to sit. After a few rounds, and some good conversation with a couple of locals, we came back through the wardrobe to find the whole town covered in a blanket of whiteness - snow on the cars, on the trees, on the roads and on the tram lines.

We walked home through the lovely park that surrounds the old town - that, and the restrictions on cars entering the old centre makes it a very nice place to walk around. And it is full of pedestirans, funnily enough.

Richard and I met the next morning for a trip out to Auschwitz, a couple of hours away. I was a bit apprehensive about how it would be, and it certainly does stick in your mind. Added to the stories of ghettos we'd heard in the Budapest synagog we'd visited, it almost makes it harder to understand how something like that could have happened.

And so, to Warsaw, where we are now. This place was completely levelled after the local resistance attempted an uprising in 1944, and the impressive rebuilding of the old town has earned it World Heritage status.

Now we're about to hop on a bus to Vilnius in Lithuania where it will apparently be minus 6 degrees tomorrow night.

What the guidebooks don't tell you #1

What to do in Krakow at 5.30 on a Friday morning.

(By the way, is anyone reading this thing? Please post comments or send emails!! We can't become betrothed every week, but we'll try to keep it interesting somehow.)

Our overnight train from Budapest arrived in Krakow before sunrise, and the shops may be shut at this time, but this looks like one funky town! Excellent clothes shops, bars and cafes, lovely architecture and ice crystals twinkling in the air (actually I think that's all of Europe right now). Can't wait till some of these places are open for the day.

But people rise early in Poland it seems, and our fear of having to resort to some desolate international fast food chain were completely unfounded - just as the cold was beginning to bite we stumbled across this internet cafe which serves hot tea and coffee. It's right on the big town square, which has a huge Cathedral and is surrounded by historic buildings which we were just able to make out through the fog. We can certainly recommend pre-dawn sightseeing, by the way, particularly if you're racing through Europe at the speed we are - get those cities ticked off all the faster. (just kidding).

Anyway, to catch up a bit on the last few days, we took a train from Split to Zagreb on Tuesday, through the countryside of Croatia. The train was brand new, but the trip was somewhat sobering as we passed a lot of towns which had obviously been shelled and not yet rebuilt. In Zagreb we changed trains and continued on to Budapest where we were due to arrive at 9pm. We finally got there at 11pm after many inexplicable stops in desolate rail sidings.

Luckily we'd booked accommodation, but unfortunately didn't know exactly where it was (assuming a 9pm arrival wasn't outrageously late). Using our ingenuity, and availing ourselves of a convenient and brightly lit international fast food establishment, we sidestepped the taxi touts (by far the dodgiest people in town) and got to our hostel about 12.30am.

Budapest was very picturesque, with exoticly shaped spires dotting the skyline. The houses of parliament are stunning, and a wallow in the hot baths of Buda are just the thing for thawing out.

Now I have to post this to find out if our photo has attached ... or not. Please bear with us.

all other directions ------->

we've temporarily pulled onto the hard sholder of the information superhighway in Budapest. hope to get back after a quick stop at the motorway services...

Romans They Go The 'ouse?

...conjugate the verb 'to go'...

Oh those Romans, bless their little cotton socks, they knew how to build things to last... or they knew how to tell other people to build things...

A couple of days in Rome, seeing just how tall the Collosseum is, and just how perfect the Forum still is was quite amazing. Then we went up to Ravenna which was briefly the centre of the Roman empire, and where basilicas are still standing from the 5th century with increadible mosaics inside.

Even Nicholas had had, by Friday, enough pizza, so we took an overnight ferry across the Adriatic to Split in Croatia. Here, the sun shines with a brightness similar to Australia, and the streets are paved with marble.

Here, the town is still centred in a 4th century palace, built as a retirement home by Diocletian at the end of his reign, and used pretty much continuously ever since. You can go in the the substructure underneath and see the pillars which are still holding the whole thing up 1700 years later.

We're staying in a room in a house owned by Marija who sits us in her kitchen each morning and gives us tea and coffee while telling us stories about her family. This morning we dropped into a cafe and around one table a dozen men were singing Dalmatian folk songs in great barotone voices.

Culinary tour of Europe

We're now in Rome, so after visiting Zurich, Florence and the Vatican we have become experts on religious art, and know an Adoration of the Magi when we see one. (And very nice it's been too, by the way - I kind of like the 12th century stuff myself).

As my sister said before we left, the most important thing to worry about on a trip like this is what and where the next meal is going to be. Highlights so far have been sauerkraut in Cologne (washed down with beer), breakfast (mostly cakes actually) in Innsbruck, ravioli with ragu in Florence, and fondue in Bern. There was also a cup of molten chocolate in Florence which was pretty amazing.

All of this makes me glad we've been running every couple of days.

Apologies for the break in transmission...

... and so early on, too - that's not a good sign. There was a distinct lack of internet cafes in Switzerland. The one option we did have, in the youth hostel in Bern, charged 15 francs per hour (around $AU15 or around 8GBP!!) I tried it, it ate my money, it threw away my words.

So a brief recap - we took a sleeper train from Cologne to Innsbruck in Austria. Sleepers are nice, but you do find that you slide up the bed every time the train goes round a bend. Innsbruck was beautiful, nestled in the mountains, and with churches filled with outrageously baroque art.

After one night in Innsbruck we trained to Zurich, which I liked straight away. We arrived into evening mist, and the dim yellow lights and busy atmosphere gave the place a romantic tinge. Spent some time in the art gallery, and walking around the streets where the shops look frighteningly expensive - a good place to live if you have money.

The next day to Bern, where we somehow managed to go for a run along the River Aaargh, obtain our Chinese visas from the embassy, and find some essential supplies for our onward journey all before lunchtime. Is that Swiss effiency, or were we just lucky?

Then on Friday to Zermatt, beneath the Matterhorn, of which we had a full view from our hotel room. We took a ski lift up for a closer look, unfortunately didn't ski ourselves, but the slopes were really busy - it must get so crowded in the winter.

From there we went into a tunnel, and came out in Italy. We spent a night in Milan, which had a great big city buzz, then took a train to Florence where we've been doing our laundry and sending home Christmas presents. I hear there's an art gallery here somewhere.

It is so nice to travel at this time of year - the autumn leaves are beautiful, the weather's not too cold, and the crowds are manageable. And accommodation is really easy too - we've just been turning up and finding it once we arrive at the train station. Our only complaint is our luggage is so heavy - we dare not get rid of our many warm clothes for fear of Siberia, yet to come.

Haiku - Florence on a Monday

Streets buzz with mopeds
Escape to the laundromat
Jeans tumble in peace

Greek tavernas

Well here we are then, the adventure has started, and we're in Cologne, admiring the rather dominant gothic cathedral, walking (and running) along the Rhine, and sampling the local beer and food. Its a very nice place to be actually - relaxed but with lots to do, and plenty of people around.

We stopped for a night in Brussels on our way here, but everyone seemed to have left for the weekend. We stayed within spitting distance of the EU Commission offices which was very useful. In our search for mussels we found mostly Greek restaurants which was rather strange. The next day we bought a couple of sandwiches from a guy who told Nicholas he had very nice teeth, which seemed like a strange kind of complement to give a person.

Because we're very well organised, and because people have asked us for one, we've developed something of an itinerary which looks a bit like this:
Friday 4th Nov - Brussels
Friday 11th Nov - top of Italy
Friday 18th Nov - bottom of Italy/ Dubrovnik
25th Nov - 2nd Dec Croatia, Hungary, Czec Rebublic, Vienna, Poland, Lithuania, ...
5th Dec - St Petersburg.

Moving Out

This is the side of things that others don't see about taking off for that dream trip - you have to box everything up, find someone kind enough to hang on to it for you, and finally deal with the fact that your cupboards are full of half-used packets of pasta, spices, more types of tea than you realised existed, and for some reason, three half-used bottles of soy sauce.

In between the farewell drinks and finally hopping on the train is the horror that is packing. Packing up the house, packing your bags.

Even though we remembered this all being very bad, we've done it again anyway.