Poland to Pest

I’m just back from 2 weeks in Eastern Europe. First stop was Krakow, Poland. We were greeted at the airport by the largest Coca Cola advertisement I have ever seen. It was a giant spinning thing, proudly saying “look we’re capitalists now too!”. We were staying with a friend who is studying in Krakow. This is good because a) it saves the cost of a hotel and b) we get the local scoop on the pubs and clubs of the city. Contemporary Polish bars seem to fit most preconceptions; they were smokey, ornate, quirky places. In one weekend, we must have been in a dozen of them, all unique, be they themed with jazz, panto, baths, cows, Kafkaesque, new-Irish, 80s, whatever. Most were small laid-back affairs, with enough variety to make Dublin’s pub scene look a bit monotonous.

While in Poland, we also visited the amazing Wieliczka Salt Mines. The mines have been in operation for about 900 years resulting in this huge underground labyrinth with hundreds of miles of passages as well as caverns, underground lakes, chapels, stables, concert halls and even a cathedral with all the chandeliers and statues carved out of the rock-salt itself . You wouldn’t want to be claustrophobic, especially when you get stuck down there for a couple of hours while the only lift to the surface ferrying concert goers in and out.

We also took in the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps, which are definitely worth the visit. Reading about the holocaust in history books is one thing, but seeing the stark reality of the camps really hammers it home. Most disturbing part: the large store room filled with 2 tonnes of human hair. The whole place was full of Israelis weeping and singing. I couldn’t help thinking that these are, in fact, the same people building walls around Palestine villages. Hopefully they’ll take some lessons back with them.

In Zakopane, a resort town in the Tatra Mountains, spring officially started the day we arrived. The last of the snow was shovelled off the pavement and the tables and chairs were put out on the street. Learning to ski was a bit optimistic in the 2 days we were there, but we did take a cable car up the mountains and threw some snowballs into Slovakia.

It’s strange what unexpected things you enjoy. I expected the night train to Prague to be a bit of an ordeal, but we managed to secure a private, 2 bed cabin all to ourselves; great fun altogether. I felt like part of an Agatha Christie novel, but with extra beer.

At 7am, Prague is beautiful. 3 hours later you can’t see it for the tourists. Despite that, we found some good bars (suggested by some yanks we met on the train) and enjoyed the less crowded sights such as the Kafta museum (well executed, but lacking somewhat) and the communist museum (slickly done, but predictably and flagrantry biased towards “hurray for capitalism”. For example, they directly attributed the death of 100,000 Czechs during the regime to Marx himself!).

A day trip from Prague to Plzen brought many rewards; a scarcity of tourists and the presence of many beer-related activities. The beer museum was good, but the Pilsner Urquell brewery was great. My taste-buds will always remember quaffing their best stuff straight from the barrel.

Next up was Vienna. Although the museumy parts are a bit sterile and ultimately dull, the number of parks and other facilities mean this probably would be a great city to live in. Park #1 is Schloss Schonnbrunn with its colonies of ducks and red squirrels, lizard houses, mazes and a zoo (you can see the camels and wallabies without paying in!). We also drank in a Porterhouse clone (run by a Irish guy) and ate all-you-can-eat sushi for €6.95 (compare with €28 in Aya). All very nice.

Budapest was the last stop. It’s a big city, but the public transport works really well. Tourists are well spread out and you can see a lot just by walking about. The city has a strange feeling, almost as if it’s asleep or as if the built-environment is too big for the spirit of the city. We tried to find some good bars, but even the full ones seem a bit subdued. Spending more time there would probably scratch more than the surface. There seemed to be a big alternative/underground scene with lots of kids with dreads and illegal squat bars, etc. Definitely worth checking out again for longer. Outside town is Statue Park, a graveyard for Communist propaganda statues. It was a little sparse on details, but was a good spectacle nevertheless.

A selection of photos are here.