Krakow, Poland Salt Mines, and the Dark NAZI past

Ok, this is a bit of a rush job again, still have to get a few more posts out of the way before I get to the really exciting stuff...

Krakow, has salt mines, you may think, WTF big deal, but they have been mined for the last 7-800 years, and now been changed into a touristy thing, there are something like 300+km of tunnels, we explored like 1% of it, and it took almost 4 hours, (I did the extra bit at the end, in my option it was well worth it)...

A bit of a shock, was the price, poland has been super cheap till now, they wanted 68z +10 for my camera, thats like $40nzd, is no way I would pay that at home for it... anyway... it was a guided tour... WTF...

Inside the mine

Carving in the mine

:)

So tempted if I get married to have it here! ;-)

The Darker side of Polish History, Death Camps or Aushwitz Birkenau there were 2 camps.... 6 million people died here at the hands of the Nazis.. the pictures explain themselves...

Krakow, Poland

Ok, this is a quick post, I am a week out of date with my blog... yes, a slave to the blog.... and this weekend is action packed...

Train journey from Warsaw to Krakow, took just a few hours, I am totally amazed at how flat Europe is, well

Here are some of the pictures from my first day in Krakow...

Crazy wood cavings... I really must post some of my gear in my backpack home, so I can start to buy some of these things...

My hosts in Krakow, these Marta & Rafel, they were amazing, I stayed with them in an old 1950's Communist style 1 bedroom appartment.. 

Krakows Castle, the dome is ment to be real gold..

was amazing, days were like 27-32 degrees clear blue skys... then THUNDER/LIGHTING... out of nowhere almost every day... was unreal

Was some market day...

Market stuff

Me & Krakow's Famous fire breathing DRAGON!, yes you have to send a txt (cost you I don't know how much, to get it to shoot some flames out!) way way cool!

MArket again, some cute Polish girl (yes there were soo soo many) smoking some dumplings

More market day stuff

Bread in Europe, is amazing, the things I will miss, when I come home, are the Bread/Cheese/Wine/Pretty girls ;-)

Anyway... that is it for the light side of Krakow, the next will be the Darker side....

"We are Chris", Warsaw Rising, The squirrel encounter. & Kumara Soup

Sorry about the delay in posts, I have had limited internet access the past week or so...

I've now cloned myself, we are chris, I am now really to TAKE OVER THE WORLD..it is so nice to have delusions of grandeur

WARSAW RISING, ok, I had a basic idea of the history of WW2, it all started with the Nazi invasion of Poland, with the USSR Joining in, the poor Pol's had no chance. Warsaw Rising, is probably the most moving museum, I have ever been in, within 30 seconds, tears were so close to coming out, you enter, to hear the thumping beat of a heart, (very loud), It is designed to make you feel, your in there, but your not.

Map of what happened

History of the second world war, basically Warsaw, the people towards the end of the war, were asked to Rise up, the Red army was close, the Nazi's were moving out, the people rose up, to reclaim there city, it was ment to be only for 48 hours, expecting surport from USSR, and the allied forces, Stalin, Halted the advance of the red army, and refused to let the allied forces land on the 2-300 air strips in eastern (USSR controlled poland)... the people of warsaw, lasted I believe 68 days, 16,000 Nazi's were killed, with 300,000 civilians killed, the city was leveled.

Now, the burning question that I had, why the hell didn't the French do this in Paris?

Anyway, time for some less depressing stuff

Interesting sign found in Warsaw, No Guns, No Drinking, No Knifes, No Spray Cans, No Fires, and No Bikes! ROFL 

One of the amazing parks in central warsaw, it is huge, 1-2km square, people are not allowed to run, or take dogs here, just walk and enjoy, it was nice! and COOL, probably low 20's

The first Squirrel encounter, cute little guy, ran up his tree into the hole 

Next encounter was like WTF, walking along the path, and this guy comes upto me... runs up my leg, and thinks... hey your not a tree, comes back... plays with my shoes... and gives me this amazing shot.. "Hurry up and FEED ME"

some amazing street art in Warsaw, I am guessing this is commissioned work, as it was amazing.

I managed to find Kumara's! shock horror,  I made a batch for Jacek & his friend, only problem, is I may have to return... to make a Pavalova!... (once Jacek finds me an oven :) ) 

Thanks again my friend for an amazing time in Warsaw!

Warsaw, Poland First night

I finally escaped berlin, and it's crappy weather, ok, it wasen't all that bad, but hot/cold/wet

I had to make my way to a huge train station, hophinhoff, I had scouted around the day before to work out where I had to go, and what train to catch. It is really strange, Berlin has some amazing new buildings, and ALOT of old run down abandoned buildings.

Anyway, I was catching the Express train to Warsaw, I noticed someone on the platform, with a katmandu backpack on, I was I bet thats a kiwi, anyway the train arrived, I worked out where I was going, (reserved my seats etc), and guess who was in my carriage, yep, I asked if they were from NZ, they said, yes, they had noticed my warriors jersey on the platform too!.  The bad news was, they were in the wrong carriage, and had to move on... duh!

Anyway, the train journey over to Warsaw wasen't too bad, I did get a quick look of the HUGE Jesus statue, in a little town called Swiebodzin, but failed to take a photo, it is ment to be looking over tesco or something.

One thing I have noticed, it is so FLAT,  fields of yellow flowers (rapeseed) the stuff they make canola oil out of. sorry again no photos... duh!

Berlin Railway station

Railway station

Strange monument railway lines heading towards a carriage filled of Cross's

Huge building given by the Russians, to the polish people, this has some strange generaters in it, that failed in the 80's they asked the Russian's for some parts, the Russians checked, and said, it wasen't theres, turns out the generator's were from some old Nazi submarine engines 

Russian Build control centre for controlling the first escalator, is pretty cool

One of the city streets

Dinner for 2 for 6-7 Euros,  $12nzd, mine is the vegie one

Down one of the streets in Warsaw

Berlin, the Gritty underbelly, of a Bankrupt city

Yes, to my surprise I found out today that Berlin, as a city is actually bankrupt, it is crazy, the Capital of Germany, designed to handle 7.5 million + people, has a population of 3.5 million, with parts of they city running at 20%+ unemployment, People squatting in buildings (well there are so many not used), Rent and food is really cheap here... people collect bottles off the street to take to the supermarkets to get a few Euros for recycling, seems so strange.

Anyway, I spend the day, on a 3 1/2 hour tour of the gritty underbelly of Berlin, I wasen't sure what to expect, the weather has been crappy, first time on my trip, raining & cold, much like Auckland in winter, sucks...

Interesting Berlin, It is legal to drink in the streets, (well appears to be the same everywhere in Europe), nightclubs have no limits, well until everyone is gone, it is legal to do so many things that are illegal in NZ, it isn't funny, Yet, Graffiti, it is a 10,000€ fine, so they have moved to putting up posters or sick on bits, this is a lesser offence, 50€ fine if your caught. It still dosen't seem to have halted much, it is EVERYWHERE, but I guess, what do you expect from a city that has such high unemployment, and a huge younger population.

One of the things I have been taking photos of since Paris, has been the Graffiti

Ok, this is something famous, something about the split between the east & west of berlin.

me standing on the edge of the wall

Some Art, notice the fingers, one is east berlin sign, the other is west.

This was inside a squatters art studio, you could smell urine, surprising the art inside was inside

2 People Boxing, but never laying a punch.

Famous tree house, notice the table is cemented to the ground

Spaceman, at night, the light from the car yard across the road shines the flag into his hand

This is where some of the trendy clubs are

Berlin day one

Ok, I arrived in Berlin, my plane was delayed some strike action at the berlin end, I had some cheese, that I tried to bring in my carry on luggage, it got bounced in the first scan, was like DUH!, ok one was a Blue vien, I can see how that could endanger the plane.

Anyway, Couchsurfing Failed me in Berlin, guess it was too much last minute stuff, I really need to get organised....

In the markets in Berlin, and what do I see? ROFL asked if I could take his picture

Tower in Berlin, kinda like skycity I guess..

Last bits of the berlin wall, it is rounded at the top, to not make it easy to climb over, going to go back tomorrow to have a better look, went on a bus tour, to scout out the area, to give me a better idea of where I am going.

ok this is at check point charlie, I will check it out again tomorrow, the bus tour, wasen;t the best for taking photo's it was COLD, and the windows dirty.

Vegie heaven, got one of the cheeze pancake thingies, and one of the brown vegie thingies, were really nice

Some building in Berlin, actually could be important :*)

something about a victory tower or something like that the Nazi's moved it and enlarged it, notice the gold thingies, they are actually cannons captured in previous wars they had won, so no cannons at the top.

Anyway, that is it for day one Germany, going to explore the Wall tomorrow, and probably buy my ticket to Poland!