Warsaw, the city I am glad I didn't skip !

Days passed fast, and soon enough came the last weekend of my stay, I successfully managed to spare time to visit Warsaw, and it was with wonderful memories that I left my dear tutor at the lab of the technical university, my Lodz couchsurfing friends, and the great group of IAESTE members. Packing wasn't easy, a mountain of stuff, I had to drag and carry with me one suitcase and two backpacks, would be nice if real-world objects could be 7zipped !

I was confident as I became quite experienced in taking public transportation, that's why a new problem occured; my phone ran out of battery in the train to Warsaw and I didn't yet confirm my arrival to my first CS contact there, Kasia. So I had to spot the right person and ask to switch sim cards for a brief phone call, and being used to the poles' kindness, not much to my surprise I fell on a very friendly guy who gave me his phone to use his own line for as much as I wanted.

Kasia was keen on instantly finding me in the crowded train station, I left my baggage there and we went up (station was underground). Space, is the word that comes to my mind whenever I think of Warsaw, compared to all the other cities it has much wider streets and more open areas, so it did not feel crowded and I liked that. The palace of culture and science was impressive, from the top was a nice view on the extents of the city. I had the chance to visit a part of the university of Warsaw, and I still can't believe it, it wasn't a university but a palace ! Apart from the beautiful old town, some parks and a few other landmarks, my visit can not be considered as deep, but I definitely had a very good impression about Warsaw, much to the events that I'm about to relate.

After spending the day with my cheerful and adorable guide Kasia, I met Marta my CS host, and we went to encounter her friends at their place before leaving to a very special event, a Drum & Bass concert on a boat accosted in the Vistula river. It was unusual music, unusual dancing and unusual video projection, so I appreciated all of that. On our way back home Marta's friends were completely drunk, but still surprisingly kind and interested in my comfort. They are fanatics of Drum & Bass ! If not listening they were all the time enthusiastically composing tracks on a small electronic gadget. The following night Marta organized a small party at her place and I met more of her friends. I feel very happy when I recall these events, and I smile to how much Marta was concerned by me, she treated me like a baby, a very dedicated, caring and lovely host.

        

I love Poland.

Tatry, the adventures in the south Polish mountains

I wasn't the only one to notice that Poland is a particularly flat land, but the exception to that was the south, which made it essential to go there (surely apart from the fact that I am a big mountain lover). During our trainings IAESTE Lodz was organizing weekend trips to many cities, but those were first relatively expensive, and second, group trips ! So it was seriously more attractive for me to do my visits on my own. Came then the weekend of the moutains, in which for many reasons I decided to stick to the group.
As usual the train was by night, we were a large group, and there were not enough places so it was uncomfortable, although enjoyable at times with some nice guessing games. The sad event was that one of us had a bag stolen while sleeping, it still reminds me to be careful when in trains. We arrived at about 5am, it was cold ! Zakopane is a highly touristic town -a good thing that people are still interested by nature-, the streets were remarkably clean, wonderful wild greenery all around, and very nice wooden buildings. We headed to our hostel to put our bags and then left for the first part of our mountain trekking.

We went to some caves, which happened to be real labyrynths, that was very exciting. The entrance is wide, clear, warm, welcoming. And then you get deeper, it becomes completely dark, wet, cold, unpredictable. You started walking, then you have to lean, then you crouch, and you end up crawling, with icy puddles of water on the gound. At a certain point you realize that you've been heading to the center of the earth for quite a long while and wonder if it wouldn't be more appropriate to go back. You only miss some rats for the scene to ressemble that in Rambo. What a pleasure. And then you perceive daylight, oh... you're finally out !

What I learned is that a phone flashlight is not enough inside a grotto, and that I would love to participate to a speleological expedition.

Later back to the hostel, I lived a memorable misadventure with a certain washing machine which happened to like my clothes so much that it didn't want to give them away in peaceful terms. By night everybody went to a fancy restaurant for dinner, and I preferred visiting the city on my own, I had a good time getting lost, finding a nice small open-air concert of folk music, and reopening a closing store to buy mountain shoes for the next day, what's more, with a personal favour discount!

Next day proper mountains, to my great surprise we were very far from being the only people to be hiking there, hundreds of others from all ages were all along the road, but happily the farther we went and the fewer they got. I was quite familiar with mountain hiking in Tunisia but there were a set of different things here, my heavy backpack to begin with (which I liked as it increased the physical effort needed to walk), and then the trees which were essentially spruces (instead of pines and eucalyptus in Tunisia), not to forget the abundance of water: lakes, streams and waterfalls. But what annoyed me was the traced paths, no place for adventures, no figuring out your way or getting lost, just nicely following the group and the track. That became a lot to bear when we arrived to the highest point of the path but not of the mountain, so with a few courageous members of the group (those who arrived first and didn't want to just wait for the others) we decided to climb to the very top. Later the organizers got angry with us when they somehow heard of that. The night fell down and we were to sleep in a shelter, but it was so much crowded that to my great pleasure many decided to take their sleeping bags and spend the night under the stars.

The next day was less enjoyable, with the walking down being more painful and the returning path endlessly long. Later in the train back to Lodz many manifested serious stomach trouble, said to be caused by drinking from the moutain water streams.

All in all it was a recourceful trip, but I would have appreciated to meet some bear or wolf.

      

Coming Soon !

Covered in the next articles of this blog will be these titles :

   Tatry, the adventures in the south Polish mountains

   Warsaw, the city i am glad i didn't skip !

   What's the point in traveling ?

Stay Tuned !

Krakow

Some controversy was issued about my visiting of Krakow, it is the most touristic city of the country and i was even encouraged to skip Warsaw for it, the problem is it's hard to couchsurf if you don't plan it at least a month ago for such cities, so i spent a long time requesting and i postponed my visit twice because of that, at the end i had a positive answer right when i started looking for hostels !
My host was not yet available for the first half of the day so it was my first occasion to be what i would call a free visitor. A free visitor has the chance to make his own way through the streets, at times paying the most attention to how he would retrace his steps back, at others being totally taken by some wild envy to wander the simpler possible, staring at things and people here and there, being foolishly happy.
But the free visitor that i was didn't take long to get bored. In the morning i took the bus  for the famous salt mine in Wieliczka, there i found one can only make his visit with a guided group. It was the first time, and i will make my best it be the last, that i make part of a group of people, or should i say a group of tourists, that carefully follow the steps of a guide, or should i say a person whose talks have been carefully recorded and kept tirelessly playing in loop forever. The place was impressive at moments and the sensation of being 135 meters below the ground didn't go unremarked. But to tell the truth it was a real pain, to belong to the group, although i'm glad i know what it is at least !

Once back to Krakow i walked endlessly to see only a small part of the big views that offers the city, and was impatiently waiting to meet my host. Marek was a very caring guy, i enjoyed his company and he was a very good host. On sunday we cycled through the city and headed to a nice lake where i couldn't stop myself from swimming, and then up to a famous beautiful hill overlooking the whole region, the day was remarkable, and ended by a warm goodbye at the bus station, as i resigned from taking the train, and i couldn't have done a better choice, the bus was cheaper, very comfortable, and i was sitting in a good company with a girl from Torun, so i didn't get bored neither from silence nor talking.

Alcohol !

Disclaimer:
To all the big alcohol lovers, the following holds potentially shocking contents that may hurt your feelings, pride or dignity. If you doubt your emotional strength please skip this section or close this window. The writer is in no place to be hold responsible of the consequences of your decision to continue reading, do it at your own risk.


I've been told before i travel that poles drink a lot, it was a good thing as my mind has been long well formatted to go against the waves, so it was a nice occasion to prove myself a new time; it was with that spirit that i headed to Poland.
In fact, so far i never got "in touch" with the alcohol world, i just always had the rule in mind, rooted by religion and social habits: not to drink. It seemed reasonable and was a simple and easy rule to follow. Then was the time to land on the real mine field and get past theory.

The first impression was by far relunctancy ! That drink smelled really bad, in fact, now that i think back about it, no wonder it stinks; it's rotten material ! So i couldn't get how people stand drinking it... That, already, has definitely been my big no no to me even thinking about trying it.
Came then the phase in which i realize how widely and commonly spread the drinking was, you could hardly conceive a friendly meeting without alcohol, and you barely find someone who settles for just one glass or can. It was not irritating to me as long as they remained sober and rational in their acts, but there happened many situations in which some friends were so drunk it was first funny to stare at them and then they raised some pity inside of me... How can one cause his mind to lose control while it is the one thing that distinguishes him from the animal reign ?
That, without mentionning all the crazy money spent behind it, i was lucky and proud to not only be called juice man, but also to be the one who spends the less money on the soft drinks ^^

My other days in Lodz

Manufaktura, the biggest attraction of Lodz, is a big compound of malls, restaurants, two museums, a hotel, clubs, and Cinema City. We once went to watch a movie in Cinema City, althought the film was not especially nice, it was good to see what a real cinema is, the screen was so huge one couldn't cover the whole of it in his field of view without moving his head ! Yet the sound was disturbing in some action scenes, a bit of normalization would've done better.
There are things i will not forget about Lodz, all are naturally linked to the cs_ers i met. I've been taught juggling in Lodz, it's one of the things leaving such good impression on you that they make you take decisions such as i will do my best to highly improve my skills and go back there someday especially to impress my masters.
In Lodz i also learned to play Poker, in the dorms i was heading to my room some night and found a group of IAESTE friends having placed two tables in the hallway and were playing Poker. I had some idea that there were tactics in that game, but i have been deceived when i realized it was just another card game highly and essentially based on luck. We surely didn't play on money, but i developed some possessiveness over my nice looking tokens during the game, and it helped feeling how easy, stupid and irresponsible it was to lose one's real money over such an infantile game.

We once gathered a group and went to a forest bordering Lodz, it was a rainy day so it was brief and then we decided to have lunch. We were all very hungry and agreed we won't wait to return to the city, instead we would try that fancy restaurant in the middle of the forest. The fact is among the many times i decided to try spending unreasonable money on food in the hope it would be worth it, i was never satisfied. Turns out the more the food is expensive, the less valuable it is. That fancy Polish restaurant did make no exception, so what was worth was making sure of it. There was a Swiss among us, he said the prices were comparable to a Mc Donalds in Switzerland ! No wonder it was a very good thing i went to Poland and not a western european country, as it happens, later i found out even Italy was already very expensive.
But all in all, i wouldn't say i'm habilitated to comment about the polish food being established it's mainly based on meat and that i couldn't eat meat back there.

Wroclaw, Poznan

Contrarily to what i was used to in Tunisia, there is no control when entering the quay or train in Poland, you only get asked for your ticket during the travel. Trains were fairly nice, and i liked those with compartiments, non existant back home, another difference is the rails are rationally wide in Poland, i always thought they were unreasonably narrow in Tunisia, no wonder it influences stability, speed and comfort. What is comparable on the other hand, is how much crowded the trains can turn to be; after the compartiements get busy, it gets even hard to find your place in the cold narrow and noisy hallway along the wagon, where many don't hesitate to spread their sleeping bags on the floor and take a set of naps regularly disturbed by those people walking over their heads back and forth along the corridor, at times accidentally stepping over their feet.

It was a tight schedule i planned for my first tripping week; one day and a half for Wroclaw and the next day and a half for Poznan. When i arrived to the first city i was nicely welcomed by by my host Marta. My first positive impression about her was enhanced by she asked me whether i like walking; we spent that whole day striding almost non stop ! Couldn't be better. At night i am very warmly welcomed by the parents, mother is interested and asks a lot of questions, in polish ! but Marta was a good interpreter. In the morning we were supposed to visit some other places. Instead, we more worthily spent it chatting at home and teaching languages. Time passed so nicely that for a while i reconsidered my plan and thought of staying instead of going to Poznan, but at the end i did leave.
Among the interesting topics raised in our discussions was the question about the point in making brief couch surfs; you get to meet wonderful people, spend magical time together, but then you leave as soon, settle for keeping it as a simple memory, and return to your daily routine. How disappointing is that ?
I believe it's not for nothing that it's meant to be so; what makes the visit good is justly its briefness, in a short time you can only get the ephemerally enthusiastic state of mind of the newly encountered person; the best of him. In a short time you are yourself excited about your visit and can only see the best of the place: this is how great a couch surf can be. If you make it long, well, if you make it long it will be different.
What is sure is that later, comes the time to make the effort of keeping in touch, and depeding on its reciprocity, you will know the extent of the friendship.
I still remember the goodbye at the train quay as if it was yesterday, it was definitely a very good first surf.

Wroclaw was beautiful, Poznan was different, was quiet and peaceful. Ania, my host, accentuated that feeling. Our many discussions were mature and calm, and to my big pleasure, there have been of those mutually comfortable silences, i always loved the people who appreciate silence. We did not spend a lot of time touring the city. At night we went to meet Ania's friends, cs_ers as well. Happened then an effect i would name The Turtle Effect !
I will unexpectedly not develop that ! Although i know you are greatly interested in getting details ^^ I can yet hint that a story can only be related after it ends.
No wonder Poznan was a highlight in Poland.