Chleb

Look! I managed, for the first time in my life, as far as I remember, to cut a straight slice of bread!
Exciting!
I don't think it will happen again, at least not for a very long time, hence why I decided that the event was definitely photo-worthy.


I assume you're all very impressed.

Parrot

I want this parrot.

More Plumbing

The water has been cut off to my building, and plumbing work is happening somewhere - from the noises coming directly from the apartment above me, I suspect that could be the place. I'm slightly worried because of what happened last time plumbing work occurred, which was just over a week ago.

Krówki

Wawel, the company that makes delicious chocolate, also produces a product called 'Krówka', which means 'little cow' (cow is krowa). These 'little cows' or 'krówki' are vanilla fudge-like things. They're absolutely addictively delicious, and I can't stop eating them. I tasted them at Aggie's grandparents' on the weekend because they'd bought many different polish sweets for Aggie and Simon to try. Then, just after work yesterday, the tram dropped me off just opposite a Wawel confectionary store, so I was forced to enter and purchase some of these delicacies.

They contain: Sugar, glucose syrup, skim milk powder, butter, vanilla flavour. I think it's obvious from the ingredients list that these are definitely going to be tasty. I don't think they could be more addictive, even if they contained cocaine.

Byłem w Wiśle

The weekend in Wisła was fantastic, staying with Aggie, Simon and Aggie's grandparents.

On Saturday, after I arrived, we went to Ustroń, caught the chairlift to the summit of Czantoria Wielka, and then walked home (it took about 6 hours). I have to mention that I was impressed by Aggie's superb fashion sense. As you can see from the photo, this jacket would be more at home on the catwalks of Milan or Paris, than on a hike through the mountains where it'd hardly be seen by anyone. The weather didn't seem to be ideal for a walk - there was a thick fog and it rained intermittently, but after walking to the town centre on Sunday, in the sun and heat, we decided that it was definitely better to hike in the cooler weather, even if it meant getting wet.


This time of year in Poland (and no doubt the surrounding countries, especially considering some of the berries we picked were on the Czech side of the border) is berry season, so we walked past many wild raspberry and blueberry bushes, which meant that we could pick and eat ripe, fresh berries as we walked. Delicious! I ate this raspberry very soon after taking its photo. There were also some other berries with names starting with 'p', in polish (no one knew their english names), but they were also tasty, so it didn't matter that we didn't know what to call them.

While hiking through the mountains, along the Polish-Czech border, we encountered several pubs, and we decided that we had to stop and have a beer at each of them. I drank beer at each of them too - this photo isn't just staged. Aggie and Simon can both vouch for the fact that I drank beer. This one is called 'Warka Strong', and it's a nice polish beer. I tried a different brand of beer at Aggie's grandparents' house that came from the Czech Republic, though I can't remember what it's called, so I hope Aggie remembers the name, as it was really good. The fact that we stopped at every pub along the hike meant that it took us about 6 and a half hours to walk something that should have only taken 4. The path took us through the forest and out along clearings. The view from the clearings was fantastic. It was a cloudy day, so the view gets better on clear, sunny days.



On Saturday night, back at Aggie's grandparents' house, we had a barbeque with delicious pork spare ribs, and then had a party because it was Aggie and Simon's last night in Wisła. Between the five of us, we consumed about 1.5 litres of vodka (wódka, po polsku). It was a nice evening, although a little scary when the neighbour from across the road visited, already completely pissed, and just kept saying "Hej" (hey) over and over again, each time shaking our hands as if it was the first time that he'd met us.

On Sunday, we had a lazy morning, and had a special soup for breakfast that you eat the morning after a heavy night drinking. Later in the morning, Aggie, Simon and I walked to Wisła Centrum, and wandered around, looking at the town, and the markets, before wandering home to an absolutely enormous pile of food for lunch. Seriously, there was enough food on that table to solve the hunger problem in Africa. Even Simon couldn't finish it.

Jadę do Wisły

I'm going to Wisła tomorrow, which requires me to be on a train at the ungodly hour of 6:40am, on a Saturday. But the early morning should be worth it, as everyone with relevant experience has told me that Wisła is a beautiful place. On top of the beauty of the area, I'll see Aggie and Simon again, as they're staying with Aggie's grandparents in Wisła at the moment (which is also where I'll be staying), so it should be a great weekend.

(I am a little concerned about the plumbing work that was done here yesterday - I hope it wasn't just a temporary patch-up job, as I don't want to return from a nice weekend away to find a flooded apartment awaiting my return.)

Plumbing issues

There are times when it's advantageous to live on the bottom floor of an apartment building and times when it's better to be on the top floor. I currently live on the bottom floor. The good point about this level is that I have less stairs to climb when I come home carrying things such as groceries etc. I actually can't think of another bonus about living on the bottom floor, so feel free to let me know if there are some that I have overlooked.
Times when it's better to live on the top floor of a building include the odd occasion when one's neighbours decide to do strange things involving water and plumbing. I have no idea what they did, but somehow they made my bath fill up the wrong way and my toilet overflow. Great. Just what I wanted at 10pm, especially after only getting about 5 hours of sleep last night. I have already cleaned my bathroom floor once tonight, and I don't feel like doing it again. Things seemed back to normal until I decided to try and experimental 'full flush' to check that my toilet is once again usable. It seems to work, as long as I don't mind about a third of the flush coming up through my bath before disappearing, slowly, down that plughole. There are also some intermittent gurgling noises emanating from the pipes.

Basically, this means that I'm a little wary about going to bed in case my apartment has another incident, and I can't really use my own toilet. Great. Just fantastic.

Radiostacja Gliwice

Yesterday Nat and I went to see the Radio Tower in Gliwice. This is the place where WW2 essentially started. Hitler arranged for a staged attack on the radio tower in Gliwice, using Germans dressed in Polish uniforms (Gliwice was called Gleiwitz and was part of Germany then). The "Polish" soldiers stormed the radio station and started to transmit a message saying "Gliwice is now in Polish hands". Hitler used this as an excuse to invade Poland, saying that Germany was acting only in defense.

Unfortunately we weren't able to go into the museum at the radio tower because we didn't realise that it is closed on Mondays (as are many other museums), but we were able to walk around the outside of the tower and get a good view of it. The tower is constructed out of wood, and held together with brass bolts, so there is not a single smidgin of steel in the structure. I don't know why this is a good thing, except that the tower is now the tallest man-made wooden structure in the world. It wasn't the tallest when it was built because many other radio towers were constructed of wood, but many of these were replaced when it was discovered that metal towers don't rot and also transmit a better signal. Radiostacja Gliwice became the tallest wooden structure when a similar tower in Germany (perhaps Leipzig) was demolished because of woodrot and replaced with a metal tower.

Kraków

Kraków is an awesome city. It's full of old mediaeval buildings that managed to survive both world wars, which is quite impressive. This picture is the 'Cloth Hall' in the middle of Kraków's Rynek, and is basically a shopping mall that has been in continuous operation for 700 years. Kraków's Rynek is apparently the biggest town square in Europe, and definitely looks large enough to claim such a title. This building is beautiful on the outside and just as impressive inside.

This is a picture of the Town Hall Tower. The town hall has since departed after being demolished in the 1820s (I don't know why). The hall had a dungeon area containing torture chambers and a popular beerhouse. Of course. These lowers levels of the town hall remain and have been converted to a theatre and cafe. This tower was completed by the end of the 13th century and now leans slightly due to a strong wind in 1703. It is possible for people to climb to the top of this tower and see the view from above, which I think would be amazing, but was just one of the many things that I didn't know about until I returned from Kraków, so I'll have to make the trek up the, apparently, 100 steep and narrow stairs.

Just off the market square I found a "classy" McDonald's restaurant. It's completely devoid of the familiar fluoro yellow arches and instead has actual 'golden' arches. Of course, the interior is just as tacky as every other Maccas on the globe. I found another one near the Rynek but it was the tacky version, which was a shame.


This is an old barbican which was used to guard the entrance to Kraków, through the Florian's Gate (Bramka Floriańska, I think). It was once surrounded by a moat and provided quite good defense of this side of the city. It was quite a marvel of mediaeval architecture. I would like to say that the moat contained crocodiles, but alas, I don't think it did. At least there was no mention of dangerous water-dwelling creatures.


This is Florian's Gate. Impressively, sections of the old wall still exist on either side, including the battlements. The eagle visible on the tower is the symbol of Poland. Nathaniel suggested that the eagle's facial expression makes it look as though the tail is actually something painful that has been forcefully inserted into the poor creature's anus. He's quite right, it does look like this, and I now find the eagle amusing wherever I see it (which is everywhere in this country - it's on every coin for one thing).

This is the Wawel Castle, Kraków's royal residence where many (perhaps most?) of the Polish Kings lived. I don't really have a good picture of it, as the sun was too bright in one direction and from the streets around the castle, much of it is obscured by trees. We didn't get to enter the castle because visiting hours had ended by the time we arrived at the gate, so I will have to return to Kraków in the near future to see it from the inside. It was a nice castle, from the outside. It's not as big as the palaces at Schoenbrunn or in Prague, but definitely larger than that in Bratislava. This castle has a 'lived-in for many centuries' appearance, as there are sections from many different periods of architecture, which adds to the interest.

This is the famous Basilica of the Virgin Mary in Kraków (Kościoł Mariacki). It's quite unusual that such a church would have two vastly different towers. One myth that I've been told is that each tower was being built by one of two brothers and they were competing to see who could build the highest spire. One of the brothers realised that there was no way that his spire would be the highest and so he killed the other one. I don't know how much truth is in that story but it's one possible explanation. Today, the taller tower (the one on the left) actually belongs to the municipality of Kraków and every hour on the hour the Kraków signal is played on trumpet. The characteristic signal is played towards the west, then the east, south and north. I didn't hear the signal because I didn't know about it until I returned to Gliwice (so another reason to return to Kraków). Apparently the signal doesn't finish, but rather comes to an abrupt end. It was traditionally played to signal the opening and closing of the city gates as well as to warn the citizens of danger, such as a fire, or approaching enemies. The reason for the abrupt end to the current signal is to commemorate a bugler who was shot in the throat by a Tatar archer while he was warning the citizens of the approaching army in 1241.

Overall I really liked Kraków, and I do plan to return one day, hopefully for a weekend or something.

Jutro jadę do Krakowa

As obvious from the title of this post, I'm going to Kraków tomorrow. I've yet to see Kraków, which seems rather amiss of me considering that it's extremely close - merely a train ride away. Well, I shall remedy that situation tomorrow. I've been told that Kraków is the closet Poland has to a 'Prague', though on a much smaller scale. There's a castle and an old town. Apparently it's the largest town square in Europe. I plan to arrive there at about lunchtime tomorrow, have a look around the city and then return to the train station to meet Nathaniel, who will be flying into Kraków tomorrow afternoon.
With any luck, the weather should be pleasant and it'll be a good weekend.