Europe,  Poland

Slavic Beginnings

August 27, 2018 / 8,096 Comments

“I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself.”

 – James Baldwin

Exploring My Roots

After leaving Prague in early August I headed to where it all began (for my DNA): Poland. 

I have a Polish grandmother.  My grandfather used to refer to her as his Polish Princess.  So while I was aware of my Polish genetics, it wasn’t until I was older that I realized the cabbage rolls and poppyseed coffee cakes she made were recipes straight from the motherland.  It never occurred to me that these things had any kind of history or heritage attached to them.  Then, a few years ago while at lunch with my mom and my aunt I also learned that my grandmother’s maiden name was Milinski, and not Miller as I was led to believe my whole life.  I don’t even know if that’s spelled correctly, but it makes a lot more sense than Miller.  I always thought didn’t sound Polish.

In all my visits to Europe I had yet to see anything east of Germany.  So after starting this leg of my trip in Portugal to meet my parents, I immediately knew that the rest of my European adventures would be based on the left side of the continent.  It’s time to see the land of my ancestors.

My time in Europe had certain restrictions.  It’s sandwiched between making family memories in Portugal in late July, and a group trip to hike Kilimanjaro in Tanzania at the end of August.  Several months ago, when laying out a loose itinerary for my time abroad, I booked a one-way ticket from Budapest to Kiliminjaro.  At the time I only knew that I wanted to fly out of Eastern Europe.  I had no plan for getting from Portugal to Budapest but I trusted I would figure it out.   So after leaving Portugal, wasting a few days in Madrid, and making a highly recommended visit to Prague, my first trip to the land of my great grandparents needed to be focused.  Southern Poland only, specifically Krakow and Katowice.

Krakow

I have come to appreciate the general slower pace and less hectic pace of Eastern Europe in contrast to the West.  I’ve previously talked about how I found Prague a much less stressful city than Madrid.  This feeling continued into Poland.  Krakow, specifically, promotes this sensation with its abundance of parkland and walking paths transversing the city center.

Krakow is well laid out for locals and tourists alike, making it easy to maneuver.  In the center is the main market square, flanked by the town hall and a few notable churches.  In the square sits a busy market building next to a long line of food vendors and craft stalls.  Walk further outside the square and you’ll find yourself in Krakow’s Old Town where you can frequent many a restaurant, coffee shop, and also visit Wawel Castle on the south side of town facing the Vistula River.  Parkland and walking trails then circle the city center in a delightful donut ring of green. 

  • Inside Krakow Cloth Hall
  • Poles sell a lot of gingerbread
  • The Main Square

I found this a very thoughtful way to lay out a town.

  • Views of the Vistula
  • Wawel Castle

A City of Juxtapositions

Krakow isn’t all pleasant strolls and gingerbread cookies.  Anyone who’s seen Schindler’s List also knows it also has a grim history.  After the invasion of Poland by the Nazis in at the start of World War II, Krakow became a government center, and its Jewish population was forced into a walled area known as the Krakow Ghetto.  This is now called the Jewish Quarter, or Kazimierz.  Thousands of Jewish Poles were then sent to nearby extermination and concentration camps.  Visitors can take a trip to see Schindler’s actual factory while in Krakow, and Auschwitz is revealingly close at about an hours drive outside the city limits.

My time in Krakow was brief at only a few days.  I had plans to meet a friend in nearby Katowice and couldn’t stay long. In general, my European itinerary is more fast paced and rushed than my typical travel schedule.  I’m in a new city every three or four days, which both doesn’t give me a lot of time to see everything and can be quite exhausting when I try. 

I took a relaxed approach to Krakow and chose to wander around like a local. I meandered through the walking trails, old town, Jewish quarter and river front.  I did not go in every last museum, and didn’t visit the castle crypts or holocaust sites.  I had plans to visit Auschwitz with my friend Helen when in nearby Katowice so the somber part of my trip was saved for later.

Despite my visit being short and sweet, I found Krakow impressive in both it’s pedestrian friendly design, as well as its turbulent and mournful history.   The fact that it endures as the beautiful city it is today only proves its resiliency.

Katowice with British School Teachers 

Katowice is only an hour or so bus ride out of Krakow and in many ways is like Krakow’s smaller, younger sibling.  I came here to meet up with a charming Brit named Helen who I met four years ago in Barcelona.   At that time, I was traveling with my friend Jen and we became introduced to Helen via a city bike tour.  Helen was in Barcelona to (I think) meet up with friends for a bachelorette party, but arrived a day early by herself.  Jen and I liked Helen immediately, asked her to dinner, and we all shared an amazing meal of tapas, wine and endless conversation.

 I promised Helen a guest spot light in this blog, which I am honored to say that she reads regularly.  So here it is.  

She’s witty.  Charming.  Funny.  She’s a married mother of two, and teaches and tutors teenagers in the UK and I’m guessing these qualities come in handy for such a profession.  This vocation likely also helped her achieve the impressive but difficult balance of equal parts patience and self-assured confidence.  This is Helen in a nutshell.  She’s emits both energy and calm at the same time.  She came smartly packed for our 4-day Polish exploit with a neatly organized in a single backpack, with thrift shop bargains inside, books to read, and room to spare.

Helen carries an energy with her presence and her conversation that makes me realize we’ve been talking nonstop for hours without feeling the weight of time.  She’s a smart lady, so we can cover topics ranging from career choices, book recommendations, political environments and the importance of good coffee all in one sitting.  There’s an ease to the conversation that makes me forget that, before that Monday, I didn’t spend more than half a day getting to know this woman in person.  She makes getting to know her easy, and it’s hard if not impossible not to like her for that.  Helen is one of those people that you can meet for only a few days and feel like you have known her for years. 

Spending time with Helen has also made me realize certain aspects of my own personality.  I’m outgoing, but not in the same way she is.  I’ll talk to strangers in tour groups and start up an uninvited conversation just because I heard a few words of English and decided to make a friend that day.   I’ve shown up to many a party in my life without knowing more than the host and have no trouble or anxiety making new acquaintances.  Meeting new people, and hearing about different experiences makes me feel energized and excited about life and I’m damn good at it.

This is the outgoing, traveling side to me.  But I also have a quieter introverted side that periodically enjoys spending a few days alone, going to a movie by myself, and finds quiet strolls through city streets or mountain ranges without the burden of conversation to be almost meditative.  I can clear my head and slow my pace.  Similarly, when I get stressed, I get quiet.  I’m intimidated by overly confident people, and being the center of attention makes me awkwardly uncomfortable.

Am I an introvert or an extrovert, or just Midwestern?  Who knows anymore.  I’m either and both depending on the day.

The Sounds and Sights of Southern Poland

Katowice is not a well-known tourist destination.  I hadn’t even heard of the city before Helen suggested the locale upon finding a cheap flight from the UK.  She had been to Southern Poland before, but Katowice was similarly unfamiliar to her.  So we did what any sensible tourist would.  We started with a Brewery tour.

Not to overgeneralize, but Eastern Europe loves it’s beer.  It’s proud of it.  It flaunts it.  It is a source of national pride.  

Tyskie is a Polish brand of beer that comes from a brewery located in the town of Tychy, just outside of Katowice.  It’s one of the oldest breweries in Europe.  The site for the manufacturing and distribution plant we visited has been there for almost 400 years, through war times and numerous Polish border partitions.  Booking a tour here is just as much about the beer as it is about getting a history lesson of Southern Poland.  

I’ve done quite a few brewery tours in my lifetime, and Tyskie was right up there at the top. In addition to the educational aspects, it’s the first tour where I’ve gotten a look inside the beer bottling plant (sorry, no pictures allowed here), and it still culminated with a healthy half liter of beer at the end of the tour. No complaints.

Somber Stops

The day after Tyskie, Helen and I took a more somber turn to our visit with a day tour of Auschwitz .  I’m not going to write extensively about this.  It’s a sad place to visit, and it’s bigger than you think it’s going to be.  Huge, in fact.  It’s terrifying to see what humanity can do to itself, especially in these current times of growing nationalism and fear of immigrants and refugees who ‘aren’t like us’.  It’s a place you almost can’t believe exists, but you have to face the harsh reality that it very much does.  The scarier part is that it’s not unique in human history.

I took only two or three rare pictures, as I didn’t see this as an appropriate kind of place to add memories to my instagram account.  It’s very much a  it worthwhile stop for every person to make once in their lifetime.  The place is telling and uncomfortable.  Just as it should be.

The remnants of one of the crematoriums 

Saying Goodbye to British Friends

Helen and I spent our last day in Katowice doing one of my favorite things, renting city bikes and exploring.  This was not an easy task.  It took us almost an hour to figure out how to make the app work so we could rent the bikes.  Katowice is also a confusing city where cafes that say they open at 8am, but don’t actually unlock their doors until just after 10am.  Therefore our last few days included more time trying to figure out where to get breakfast and how to unlock the bikes than actually seeing anything.

It’s all part of the experience of foreign travel.

Once we did get the bikes figured out, we did an abbreviated trip to the local museum.  Specifically, a former coal mining site turned modernist history and art museum.  I didn’t get to stay long as I had to leave to catch a bus, but Helen went back for a second visit after I left, the exhibits were so well done.  An unexpected surprise in the small city of Katowice.

The night before leaving we found a lovely restaurant serving real Polish food.  Another odd quality of Katowice is that it was highly common to see crowds out drinking at night, but finding people eating was a very different story.  Locating a restaurant that served a full menu was surprisingly difficult.  As appropriate for Katowice, the restaurant Helen found was oddly situated in the lower level of an apartment building.  From a distance it looked dark and unoccupied.  But it turned out to be a gem of a find.  The food was top notch, and the decor adorable.  It’s like it was decorated by a Polish grandmother who loves kitsch too much.  This is exactly what I want my house to look like one day.  

I enjoyed my time in this small, previously unknown Polish town. And even more so, I enjoyed getting to know better this British schoolteacher full of interesting insights and lively conversation. I can only hope we cross paths again in the near future.

Slovakian Mountains

After leaving Poland, I continued moving southward, and crossed the border into Slovakia on a bumpy, naseau inducing mini bus.  It was time to get out of the city and partake in a new kind of adventure in solo traveling.  Hiking through the Tatra Mountains.   

I briefly looked up the possibility of joining some kind of hiking group in Slovakia but quickly came to the conclusion that it was both unpopular and entirely unnecessary.  Most web pages and blogs I read said that the trails are well marked and well-trafficked in the summer.  There’s no reason to need a guide.  So I thought – alright, let’s give it a try.  Let’s have a real solo travel adventure. 

I booked a bus to Poprad, a rental car, and a cheap accommodation about three days before I arrived.  The day I arrived I got on wifi, looked up a bunch of hikes, and wrote down 4 or 5 that looked interesting with instructions on how to get there.

I’ve never rented a car by myself in a foreign country before.  I’ve never gone hiking alone in a foreign country before, it’s always been with a tour group or friends.  I was trying something new.   I gave myself the ok to back out, and drive straight to Bratislava if I decided I hated it.

Luckily, I didn’t hate it.

During the winter months, the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia are filled with booming ski resorts.  The hiking trails leverage off of this existing structure.  For hiking, you can park for free in one of the numerous lots at the bottom of a ski lift.  Here there are shops, restaurants, and bathrooms.  Depending on the hike, I either took one of the many well marked hiking routes up the mountain, or paid to take a ride up on the ski lift.  Up at the top of the lift, there are usually several more well marked trails.  If I got tired or didn’t want to hike down, I always had the option to take the lift down.

Easy peasy.

Solo Hiking

I did three days of hiking and tried to mix it up with a variety of hikes.  I did one day in the High Tatras, taking the ski lift up and then completing a ridge hike route.  For another day, I went to a local national park called Slovak Paradise and did an ‘adventure’ hike.  And for my last day I did one serious uphill mountain hike to one of the higher peaks in the region in the Mala Fatra range.

I was surprised and impressed by a lot of things during these three days.  The scenery far exceeded my expectations.  I have such a soft spot for green covered mountains and that’s exactly what Slovakia offers.  I saw great wildlife including three foxes on the trail on my first day of hiking.  The views were breathtaking and gorgeous.  It all put me in such a happy mood.

Slovakians have an admirable willingness to get outside in the summer.  Parking lots were full by 10am.  Everything was well organized and marked.  I saw some other foreigners and heard a few other languages on the hikes (mostly Polish since the border is less than an an hour away), but the vast majority of people filling these hiking trails were relatively local.

I was also impressed by the many families hiking with their young kids.  I saw dozens of kids on long or strenuous hikes where you would never see American kids and their overprotective parents.  At least not in the same numbers. 

In Slovakia Paradise, I did the popular gorge hike which is a full on obstacle course complete with metal ladders, bridgeways, and wooden step bridges.  In my opinion, the route would never be legal in the US for safety reasons. Not in a million years.  There were too many potentials to slip off of something, or miss a step and fall through the cracks.  Yet I can’t tell you how many kids under the age of ten I saw doing this hike.  I saw several kids as young as 3 or 4 being hoisted up those ladder bridges by their parents, looking completely unfazed.

Slovakia turned out to be one of my top destinations during this leg of my European leg.  I would happily go back again.  If you like to hike and Slovakia is not on your ‘must visit’ list, I would add it, and quickly, before other people catch on and it becomes overrun by tourists.

Hungarian Homage

I’ll be honest here, I did a pretty lame tour of Budapest.  I was tired from my hiking adventures in Slovakia.   After not having good wifi for several days, I finally had a strong signal and used that opportunity to get some future travel planning and Netflix watching accomplished.  Immediately after leaving Budapest, I got on a plane to Tanzania enroute to meet a group of friends to hike Kilimanjaro the following week.  

Budapest got the short end of the stick here.  I didn’t do much.  

The day I arrived was some kind of national holiday – I’m still not sure which one.  This meant a big city party that day.  I took advantage of this opportunity to let the city plan my visit for me.  All I had to do was walk to the waterfront and there were street vendors ready to feed me and fireworks ready to entertain me.  Not a bad way to be introduced to a new country.

For the rest of my stay I took the lazy tourist route of seeing Budapest. I aimlessly wandered around and occasionally came across something interesting.  This is not a bad approach to exploring.  There’s plenty of beautiful sites to see just walking down the Danube.  Buda castle is on, you guessed it, the Buda side.  This is a good place to mention that the city actually consists of two districts, Buda and Pest, across the river from each other.  

I visited the city market and tried some local hungarian food.  I ate a few pastries.  I found a few nice coffee shops to work on my blog. 

Before I knew it, my short three day stay was up and it was time to head to the airport.  Pretty boring, right?  I don’t have a whole lot to say about this city and I know I missed seeing a lot of it.  Being a full time tourist is exhausting.  I can’t do it all the time.  Especially when I was a few days away from climbing the tallest mountain in Africa.  I need lazy days. 

Next stop: Tanzania 

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