The Wild East

"The KGB say he was an anti-social hooligan."

Krakow- Warsaw
Monday 21August
We get up at 8 for breakfast. I manage not to break anything this time. We attempt to get some ticket reservations, as they are compulsory. But the woman at the ticket desk starts waving her hands around in anger, and then sells us something which is completely useless, charging us about £2.

The train is fairly busy, and is eventless until we get to Warsaw. Warsaw is a concrete city- 95% of which was destroyed by retreating Nazis in 1944, as a punishment for disobedience to Hitler. It was then rebuilt in true Soviet-style- dozens of concrete towerblocks. There are 3 glass skyscrapers built in the last few years.
Warsaw Centralny station is a 4-layered multi-story car park design. It is supposedly a thieves and muggers paradise, but we don't encounter any trouble.

On the main road we get our bearings, and prepare for a tough time; Warsaw has a chronic accommodation shortage, especially cheap accommodation. The first place we try is about £52/night. The Bristol a mere £200/night!!.
After going into a tourist office, we eventually find somewhere, but it takes another 45 mins to locate it.
We go in.
A fat middle-aged woman sits there looking at us (looking a bit like a stereotypical headmistress). When she realises we want to stay there she snatches our passports away from us. She charges us 120zl. I only have 100zl.
We explain that we will return with more money, but she slams a book down on the table, and curses under her breath, as if we are causing her great inconvenience.

Mark goes to change some travellers cheques. When she sees the money, she stops tutting, and smiles at us. However I've now left my 20zl in another pocket.
She looks furious again.
After sorting it out, we are given a warning that we must NOT go onto the girls floor. There is a "rule book" outside NO- drinking, smoking, getting over-familiar with the opposite sex... Everyone must be back in the building by 11pm, up at 9am. Anyone under the influence of drink/drugs will be banned/fined...there are at least fifty rules. I take a photo of them which unfortuneatly doesn't come out.

We walk back round the old town (very beautiful) and back towards the centre. On the way we go into a few shops hoping they might sell an English paper, but they don't. We carry on and get a meal. It is very expensive. £5 for a meal (1 course) and £3 for a beer!
It's about Dusk outside. After all the searching for somewhere 'cheap' to eat, we turned 180 (about 8 times. The meal was a traditional Polish dish, adequate, but Polish quisine isn't spectacular. We turn left (this may have been my fault). We walk down through a deserted park, where it is obvious we have gone wrong. We stand outside a small university.
As the river can't be seen, I assume we are too far to the west. This was all a wrong assumption, because I thought we were still on the left hand side of the road. We turn right heading for the old town. It begins to get dark.

For the next 20mins we walk down deserted streets, and through an abandoned building site- perfect places for being mugged, but everywhere is deserted.
Then we get to a major road junction, and have to cross 5-lanes of traffic. There are no footpaths around with the added danger of oncoming traffic, and Polish driving in the dark. After crossing a grassy slope we end up by the river Vistula, and follow it until we see the huge Dzeraevsky bridge with the main road on.
We have to cross a few sliproads but eventually find some pavement to walk on at the top of the bridge. We get back to the main centre 40mins later.

At the statue in the old town there is an old guy playing some music, and he's pretty good. He's got an automatic drum, and bass guitar going in the background, and is improvising on top of that.
I was intending to buy some of his tapes, expecting them to be about $1-2. they turn out to be $15-25! He has a sign saying he was in the Gulag (Siberian concentration camps) for 19 years for his "political and social views". The KGB say he was an anti-social hooligan. I don't remember what his name was, but I think he was Russian, not Polish.
On the other side of the statue there is a breakdancing competition going on. Strangely, this talentless display attracts more spectators than Gulag man.

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