Category Landtravel
I normally despise all inclusive tours but for the goal of the day it seemed like the best option, so we took the easy way out. A mini bus picked us up outside the hostel and drove us directly to Auschwitz which is only an hour or so away from central Krakow. From there a guide led us around the remains of the concentration camp, giving us nearly whispered explanations through our head phones.
I expected to have some feelings of sadness at this place, but they never showed up. Perhaps it was due to the very controlled environment crowded … Read the rest
krakow undoubtedly has one of Europes most memorable old towns, definitely the best during this trip. Walking from the train station towards old town a simply breathtaking sight meets you as the street opens up onto the main market square. The churches, market hall, town hall and so on are just magnificent. Other cities like Bratislava are simply no match for this. The sheer size of the place also plays a role in upping the wow factor I guess. I snapped a few quick shots but they don’t really do the place justice.
Shots of old town Krakow taken during … Read the rest
A small box in the guide book titled “Worth the trip” informed us of the hot springs in a town called Piestany. Since both Yini and I enjoy hot spring baths we decided to go for a day excursion and relax a bit. Although not really what we expected, it was really nice to go for a soak in hot water, both clear and muddy. What was less nice was the lack of tourist information and maps that caused us to get lost on the way back to the train station.
When we got back from our day trip, we … Read the rest
Slovenia is a great country but we have limited time so this morning we moved on through Austria to Bratislava in Slovakia. We have walked around most of the old town and can conclude that, much like Ljubljana, Bratislava can not offer all that much in terms of the old towns compared to places like Budapest; the only noteworthy things are the statues of every day people here and there. The atmosphere however, is much nicer than more popular old towns with fewer crowds. The people on the street seem to be locals for the most part, since very few … Read the rest
The last two days we have been busy seeing what Slovenia is really all about: the great outdoors. We started yesterday by going southwest to the Karst region and visited the Postojna caves which was nice but a bit on the touristy side. You have to take a rather expensive tour that includes two journeys with a small undground train. Even though photography was forbidden I snapped a few shots on the way out.
From there we went to Predjama Castle that is built in the mouth of a gigantic … Read the rest
The revised plan looks like it’s a good one. We arrived in Ljubljana this morning and spent the day walking around the old town (like you do). The old town itself with it’s castle, churches and government buildings is rather unremarkable as compared to other east European capitals. A bit more colorful than the almost exclusively sand colored old towns of Croatia but not really special.
What is special as compared with the Croatian old towns is the lack of tourists. Most of the people on the streets seem to be locals going for a coffee and with that comes … Read the rest
We knew pretty early on that we could not move through Serbia due Yini needing a visa, so yesterday we took a bus to Montenegro to try to circumnavigate that problem. Unfortunately visa free entry did not equal hassle free entry. Yini got rejected at the boarder because we did not send a fax to tell them she was coming. So with a distressed girlfriend and in sweltering heat we started walking the few kilometers across the borderlands back towards the Croatian boarder.
As luck would have it, waving my thumb at passing cars paid off, and we managed to … Read the rest
I can say right from the get-go that Dubrovnik is both wonderful and horrible at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, the place is lovely, anyone with even the slightest interest in old architecture, castles, churches and the like ( I believe that covers some 80 percent of the human race) will love the city. What is less nice is the multitude of people visiting the city during the summer, there are people simply everywhere and you can never get some peace and quiet. I guess it’s better to be here in May or September. Now that that’s sorted … Read the rest
Yesterday was wholly dedicated to moving from one place to another. The original plan was to leave Vis in the morning and head for the island of Korcula and from there move on to Dubrovnik. Unfortunately this is only possible over the course of several days, with careful planning. With less careful planning it can take up to one week. However, we were set on going to Korcula so we headed back to Split with the ferry, waited there for a few hours then headed out again to Vela Luka on Korcula. By the time we got there it was … Read the rest
Today was an amazing day; we visited many places, saw many things and had lots of fun. We started off by renting a scooter from a friendly little place nearby our accommodation. We rode off to find some brunch but alas there was none to be had on the road we took. We did however find a sight well worth exploring. A small path led us past an abandoned house up on the cliffs overlooking the sea. There we found a set of stairs leading down into a small bunker with some slits for rifles.
