Krakow, Poland

[nibot]

Left Slovakia and cut through the Czech Republic with a one hour stop in a little Czech town, came into Poland when the last three cars of the Warsawa-bound train were cut off and sent here to Krakow (as intended). Here I am in the ancient city of Krakow, it's a fun place. On the train I met lots of interesting people (Slovak student of English; Estonian who just quit the Estonian SEC to form his own investment bank, who was shocked that I knew where Estonia is let alone have been there, who learned English at UC Riverside; American guy from North Carolina - while talking we discovered our shared interests in urban exploration and esperanto, imagine that! we may meet up again 'cause he's on his way to st.petersburg; Girl from Singapore who annoyed the other american guy and I by incessantly bringing up the subjects of president bush, september 11, etc, ad nauseum [which is to say, at all]; Polish guy wearing a ``Mission Viejo'' t-shirt -- no joke, his friend's on the swimteam). Now I'm staying with my boss's nephew and being shown around the city by my CERN colleague Pawel who lives here. On Tuesday to Warsawa, on Wednesday to Vilnius, I think. Send me email, I like it.

Comments

[shamster.livejournal.com]

I'm looking to buy a mandolin. They are prevalent in eastern Europe and the mediterranean... and cheaper too! If you find a shop selling one for over $100, and then manage to haggle it to under $100... I'll pay for it & for shipping. Maybe you can COD it?

If not a mandolin, then any neat stringed instrument will do. Don't bother with scitars, they're too huge and fragile :)
Violin would be especially cool too, but I don't know anything about quality on those.

If you're in Ukraine and stop by Lvov... that's where my mom grew up :) And if you're in Poland and find a city that used to be full of jews but doesn't exist anymore because of the germans... that's where my grandpa grew up :) And for god's sake, stop by Rumania some time and eat some yummy cheeses!

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Hm, I haven't actually seen any stringed instruments for sale. I'll keep my eye out, though. I am lugging around a ridiculous amount of stuff (gear for living at CERN plus gear for climbing mountains in Sweden) but I'm going to try to pick up some nifty stuff and mail home my extra t-shirts maybe.

Ah, Ukraine. That will have to wait for another trip. Next trip will be Bratislava on south through the Balkans, or maybe Bratislava east to Georgia and Armenia.. ah..

I did visit the Jewish quarter of Krakow yesterday (saturday night)... it was very much an empty place. )-:

[shamster.livejournal.com]

Holly and I visited you parents last night. As a coincidence Roger and Shirley were there also - showing off the video and pictures from the labor day camping trip at Silver Lake. Kris was gone for a midnight interlude with a Russian girl from Azusa and Eric is... well, he's a martian... er... marine!

One of my goals when taking a trip to the east europe is to visit the olde and majestic synagogues that haven't been torched.

Holly says hi.

Auschwitz

[auressiel.livejournal.com]

If you get a chance, stop by Auschwitz and take one of the guided tours. You can easily get there from Krakow by train and the tours are cheap (~10 USD) and in English. For whatever you've read about or have been told about the Holocaust, nothing can prepare you for what you'll see and hear about there.

Krakow

[nibot.livejournal.com]

You've been to Krakow? I really need to get a resume of your various travels.. I knew about St. Petersburg but then it keeps coming up that wherever I am, you've been. It's amazing!

Re: Krakow

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, it's ever so slightly possible that I might get to St. Petersburg on this trip. Some of my Swedish plans now prove to be impossible to execute, so I might re-route for a week.. know anyone there still? I was planning to avoid Helsinki on this trip since it's so incredibly expensive but I might have to go there for the Russian visa.

Re: Krakow

[auressiel.livejournal.com]

I think you can get a Russian visa anywhere there is a Russian consulate, so you really shouldn't be forced to visit Helsinki again (actually, Poland might do quite nicely). The most important bit (and I'm sure you already know this) is that you need to get your invitation secured _early_. The main hostel in Saint Petersburg should issue you one for a "fee", but I think you'll still have to pester them a bit about sending you the paperwork once you've given them the money. Oh yeah, and don't bring any tatty or stained US money with you. The banks won't exchange it. As for people I know in SPb, there are a few, but I'd have to email them to find out whether they're still around. Let me know if you decide to go and I'll send off some emails. Hope you're having fun!