Helsinki to Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw and the rest of Poland.

Helsinki to Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw and the rest of Poland.

19th Aug Laura had an early start today so, so did I. Up and out at 7.15am and after saying my good-byes made the 15 minute drive to the ferry terminal. I was 3 hours early for check in so I climbed in the back and slept for a couple of them. At 2pm I arrived in Tallinn and headed straight for the road south to Latvia. Laura had told me that the Latvian roads were bad and they certainly were not as good as Finland, but judging by all the ‘sponsored by the EU’ signs along all the newly paved roads, I was quite sure the roads have improved of late. Estonia seems like a nice country, for the bit that I saw, with lots of little villages and sprawling farms and forests. A few hours later I crossed over the Latvian border and past the old passport control checkpoints, rotting away and roads full of weeds. I’m sure their passing into history are mourned by no one. The EU has been good to these countries with a real lift very evident. Latvia is a less well off country than Estonia with obvious but subtle differences, however Latvia is lovely too. The road from the border to Riga is along the Baltic Sea and although much of the sea views are blocked by trees, many of the road side stops have access onto the beach. I stopped at a couple and there were miles of deserted beach. I’m sure if Dad were with me, he’d be in like Flynn for a swim. I finally arrived in Riga and called to the hostel. I decided to stay there and went off to park the van. Big Eastern European cities have a reputation for break-ins into foreign registered cars so I found a secure underground car-park. After checking into the hostel I went into the restaurant next door and had a lovely dinner for €5. That evening I went for a walk around the town and on first impressions seems like a larger version of Tallinn.

20th Aug Slept in today until about 10am and was on the streets by midday for a look around. I visited the ‘Museum of Occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union’ today, which was also visited by Mary McAleese, Queen Elizabeth, Laura Bush and others. It was a good display and those guys had a hard time under Stalin and later regimes up until 1991. I visited a war museum, walked through the park, the streets, by the canal and the river. It’s a nice city but I’m ready to move on tomorrow.

21st Aug Left Riga today bound for a small town called Sigulda. It’s an hour west of Riga and is best known for its castles and outdoor adventure pursuits. It has a bobsleigh track and a nice river which the guys that rent the kayaks will drive you upriver and release you to paddle down river and back to base. Unfortunately for me they do not allow lone paddlers and as there was nobody else going at the time, so that was knocked on the head. I went to the bobsleigh track, parked at the bottom and walked up to the start. The track was closed for the day for maintenance so didn’t get to do that either. At that point I decided to push south and make way for Lithuania via a village called Pilsrundale. At this tiny place there is a massive palace designed by the great Baroque era architect Bartolomeo Rastelli who also designed the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, yawn. I had a nice dinner there for €6 and walked around the outside before 6 pm closing time and had to leave. Close to the Lithuanian border, I decided to continue on across the border and similar to Latvia a big checkpoint setup and nobody there. As I intended to stay the night at Sigulda and didn’t expect to be as far on as I was. My hostel in Vilnius (capital of Lithuania) was booked for tomorrow night and now I was with a 150 km of it. I stopped in a couple for places but didn’t like them too much but finally stopped at this rest area, watched a video and slept for 10 hours.

22nd Aug Up and out about 10am and hit the road for Vilnius. I arrived in the hostel early that afternoon and had a look around town. I must have broken a world record for the amount of churches I’ve been in and out of and this place added to that. It’s a lovely old world place but despite the massive restoration projects underway there is still lots of fabulous buildings crumbling away due to years of Soviet era neglect.

23rd Aug Up around 10am this morning and decided to leave Vilnius but not before doing the much hyped ‘Free walking tour’ of the more unusual sights at midday. Although it’s free, for tax or regulation reasons or whatever, one is expected to tip at the end if they thought it was any good. Around 10.30am I went down the town to get some breakfast and decided on this particular place. It was nice and sunny Sunday morning and I took a seat outside and waited. A while later a waiter appeared, plopped the menu on the table with a grunt and was gone. I flicked through it, decided on some gourmet pancake thing and awaited his return. 10 minutes later he came back and I told him what I wanted. He looked at me and said ‘Breakfass finiss in the 11am’. I could have thrown the menu at him; I was sitting at his restaurant like a green horn since 10.50am. He leaned over the menu, impatiently flicked the pages to the Lunch menu and prodded his finger down on the page and stood up straight again. I vigorously flicked the pages to the end, closed the menu with a prod of my finger and handed it back to him with the delicacy of a Lithuanian Lada. I stood up slowly and with 2 Americans grinning widely at the next table, I strolled off with my pride full and my belly empty. After a quick visit to a convenience store and a sandwich and cappuccino later I was waiting at the steps of the town hall for this tour. There were 10 others waiting and at 12.15pm it was obvious that whatever gobsheen that was doing the tour had no intention of showing up (despite the poster advertising it as being on 7 days per week). Deciding at that point that it was time to point the van in the direction of Poland, off I went. It wasn’t too long before I was close to the Polish border and I pulled into a petrol station and exchanged all my Lithuanian coins and notes for that exact amount of diesel. It was a pre-pay station so I had to go to the counter and pay for the amount I wanted and back out to the pumps and it would dispense that amount in fuel. When I plopped all my coins on the counter it was like a scene from a bar in a Wild West movie with copper coins spinning and rolling this way and that. I parked on the opposite side of their forecourt, had a quick bite to eat and went for a snooze in the back. Two hours later, I was on the road again crossed through an obstacle course of a border into Poland. It was early Sunday evening and the traffic was mental. The Poles are lunatic drivers passing out cars in a solid line of traffic, squeezing in where there isn’t space, risking their lives and others to save about 20 seconds, maybe it was because it was a Sunday evening. Hunger was creeping in and dead quiet rural eateries are usually not a good idea so passing through this town I spotted a McDonalds and succumbed to its temptation. It was the busiest McDs Id ever been in with people squabbling over table and Q’s out the door. I pronounced the Polish ‘Big Mc Meal’ in my best accent and yer wan hadn’t a clue what I was saying. Bored Que’rs were watching and listening in and I felt the eyes of the world were on me. Abandoning my efforts to use the language, I pointed at pictures etc and got what I wanted. Driving along through the countryside anyway, Mary my Sat Nav was telling me that I would be arriving in downtown Warsaw in less than 20 mins. All there was around me were single carriageway roads, farms and redneck kids. It dawned on me that the clock was an hour earlier in Poland and in fact Warsaw was 1hr 20 mins away. That suited me fine as I didn’t want to arrive in Warsaw until the following morning. I pulled into a service station / truck-stop for the night and parked in amongst the trucks. I started writing up my blog for the night when I noticed a dog sitting in front of the line of trucks. As time went by I observed him sniffing and growling at anybody that walked near the Lorries but not the truck drivers themselves. He seemed to know the difference. I reckoned he was a stray and etched himself purpose and a living doing what he was doing as the drivers were giving him scraps and bit and pieces. Was lovely to see.

24th Aug Up and out at 10am and off to Warsaw rejoining the mental traffic made worse by road works, probably one of the short term downsides of EU infrastructural money. An hour or so later I arrived in the old town of Warsaw, and it’s absolutely beautiful. There are so many fantastic buildings I just wandered with my mouth open. All is not how it seems however as Warsaw was flattened during WW2 and all their old period buildings have been 90% rebuilt to their original design since the mid 80’s. It took me totally by surprise and would definitely recommend it as a weekend destination. Armed with all the tourist info I saw a lot of the city and by the evening I felt I’d seen a lot of what was on offer. That night I went down the town again to soak up the night atmosphere and have dinner. As I walked around I was listening to all the busker musicians playing the best classical music I heard anywhere. The famous composer Chopin was from Warsaw and perhaps he has inspired future generations of musicians. There were lots of beggars too and one person I gave money to was an elderly chap Id say in his mid eighties. He was dressed in his best suit, a grubby former soviet design with a really skinny tie and leaning heavily on his stick. He shuffled his weight from one leg to another and was standing there for ages. He was comforted the classical music being played nearby and I watched him with his little plastic container subtly at his front and not being shoved in anybody’s face. He wasn’t collecting much, in fact there was nothing in his container and had got nothing in the 15 mins I was watching him. His toothless mouth hung open as he watched the 3 busking violinists through his thick glasses and I felt so sorry for him. What was his life like? At that age having to beg and obviously not comfortable with it or used to it. He was trying his best to look respectable but at the same time if you didn’t look closely you would think he was just standing there. He should be with family, watching TV or in bed. I had a lump in my throat as I observed him. I tried to work out what he would make in an evening and maybe through a donation I could encourage him to go home early. I know there are worse cases in the world but it must be frightening at that age not knowing what will happen to you the day you can’t get out of bed to beg.

25th Aug I slept in the van outside the hostel last night. The hostel was really busy and they used my reservation which was fine as sleeping in big smelly dorms are less attractive than having the camper to myself. I woke at 6.30am and was on the road for 7. The morning traffic was getting busy leaving Warsaw but didn’t really let up all day. The Polish roads, drivers and volumes on the roads are ridiculous, I’ll be glad to put them behind me. I drove from 7am until 2pm today and arrived in Krakow in Southern Poland. When I arrived, Mary my Sat. Nav. some how directed me down the main tourist Pedestrian street and was so embarrassing all the tourists looking at me and having to get out of the way. I swung round the first left I came across before the local constabulary caught up with me. It’s a fabulous little city with lots of old buildings, castles and pedestrianised streets. One of the churches I went into had 2 doors, one signed for worshipers and one signed for tourists. There was a charge for tourists and free for worshippers so Naturally I was a worshipper. I was walking in a few steps behind these American girls and the security guard stopped them and told them to go to the tourist entrance. He then took a look at me and I started blessing myself as I walked by him whilst spouting in a subtle but loud enough; In Nomine, Patris et filee et Spiritous Santi. He let me pass.
Krakow was the setting for the film Schindlers list and I walked around the Jewish quarter where the Nazis rounded up the local Jewish population and exterminated them in the nearby concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau. The place is still be repopulated and still has the decay from WW2. I met an Australian lad in the hostel that Id met in Vilnius and Warsaw and he’s joining me on a trip to Auschwitz tomorrow. We went out for dinner and drinks this evening and enjoyed his cop stories (Aussie Police officer in Sydney).

26 Aug Up and out of Krakow with Casey, the Australian lad, and on our way to the concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau.. We got there about 90 mins later and went to Birkenau first. It was a horrifying place built entirely for the storage and extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Russian POWs, resistance fighters, gays and the mentally ill. The complex was huge and housed over 100,000 people at its peak in barn size timber bungalows. All the houses were built with a concrete base and chimney and that’s all that remains of the bungalows now except for a few that have been rebuilt for exhibition purposes. We saw the gas chambers, miles of barbed wire and the conveyer belt system of the mass murder of over 1.5m Jews. We stayed a couple of hours and went off to Auschwitz, 3km away. Auschwitz had a visitors centre and after lunch there we took a look around. Auschwitz was a concentration camp for workers in the nearby factories. They were overworked and underfed and once they started to fade they were sent to Birkenau for extermination. Funnily enough Auschwitz as a camp was a pleasant enough place on the surface. It was an ex Polish Military base and had nice grounds, mature trees and pretty red brick buildings. However, underneath the horror of the place beggared belief. Live human medical experiments, hangings, executions, lethal injections, brutal interrogations not to mention the mountains of human hair, spectacles, adult and childrens shoes, suitcases, hairbrushes etc. Inmates died from disease, hunger, exhaustion, lunacy and terror. It was great to see but at the same time shocking to know that it was perpetrated by a fellow EU member only 65 years ago.
Later in the afternoon, I bid farewell to Casey (he went back to Krakow on the bus) and I set Mary bond for Prague. I crossed the Czech border about an hour later. I though the border was further along than it was and had not spent all my Polish Zlotys (Slutties as I called them to many a raised brow) so after crossing the border swung around and back into Poland to the nearest service station and did my diesel routine. Back to the Czech republic and as it was getting dark found a service station with a truck stop and pulled in for the night. I filled up with Diesel and bought a Bohemia Beer ( apparently the best beer region in the world) paid it all with visa as I had no Czech money and drank that before bed.