During our hunt for train tickets
from Warsaw to Poznan, in the main train station of Munich, I suddenly got
pushed by a (drunk?) Polish male, around 40years old. He asked me: “Why do you
have a patch (=sticker on backpack) showing Che Guevara? We do not like him
here! We do not like Communism! Take it off!” As I tried to explain him that I
did not feel anything positive, nor negative, towards communism, but that I had
only put it on because I had been to Argentina, he did not believe me and told
me to take it off again. “We do not like communism here! You should know that
we used to have communism and we did not like it.” He then walked off and
luckily we did not have any other problems with anti-communist people
afterwards. Except maybe, for a 60-year old drunk Polish guy on the bus in
Krakow, shouting to the whole bus that some people facing him, no one of our
group though, were communists, just as the mayor of Krakow and that they would
destroy the city.
I understand that communism was overthrown
only twenty years ago, while it overruled Poland for more than 40years, but I
do think that some people, mostly elderly, still live with the fear that one
day it might come back. Stop looking to the past, stop looking at what
happened, but use that past, use that (negative) experience to deploy and
develop yourself and your country to a bright new future!
On our way back from Hel, on the
boat to Sopot, we met a Polish guy from around 25, drunk as hell (get it? He
came from Hel, drunk as hell). He started talking to us- well, mostly to
Liesbeth (who wouldn’t start talking to her…!)- and was drinking shots of vodka
from his small bottle. After a while the bottle was empty, I don’t even want to
know how many of those he had already had that day (it was only 5.30PM) as his
eyes were already unbright and staring next to you when he was facing you,
instead of towards you. The smell of his breath was pure alcohol and cigarettes
and the look on his face was pure drunkenness. When he noticed that his bottle
was empty, he growled to himself and threw the bottle into the ocean. That was
stupid, but still explainable as he was drunk.
But now comes the best part.
After throwing the bottle in the
ocean, he took off his backpack and took out a 500ml bottle of coke. He opened
it and right before drinking, Liesbeth asked him whether it was vodka-coke. He
stopped his intent of drinking, looked at her, looked at the bottle, closed it
again and then threw the full bottle of coke in the ocean, shouting ‘No
vodka!’. Just like that, he threw a full non-used of bottle in the water.
He then tried to invite us over for
vodka-drinking in Sopot. He must have invited us five times or more, but we did
not accept his invite, as we were a big unsure about his intentions.
After a while, and as he did not
speak a word of English (except for ‘F*ck’, which we heard quite a few times),
we were assisted by a 15-year old boy from Warsaw, speaking some English. We
then started talking to the boy and what he had to say was maybe even more
shocking than the drunken Polish guy on a boat from Hel (the guy actually lived
in Hel, can you imagine…!).
The 15-year old told us that he was
being bullied at school, because his father was Austrian. His mom was Polish,
but his father was Austrian. Just for that, for what he told us at least, he
was being called a nazi-child. Can you imagine how hard that must be, knowing
what the nazi’s did to the Polish people during WWII? That must be so hard for
a youngster to live through, just because your father happens to be Austrian…
I’ve written several blog posts in
the past few days, so if you’ve missed out on checking my blog, be sure to
scroll down and click on the titles of every post you might’ve missed. I can
assure you that the Krakow and most of all the Auschwitz–post are sure worth
reading…
When we returned from our trip to
the concentration camp, we were all a bit depressed. We finished some
administrative work (like checking bills, sharing costs, etc.) and decided that
each of us needed some time to rearrange his mind. Everyone got into his own
world, some read, others went out for a walk in the city, others slept and of
course Facebook was checked by all of us.
We had bought a bottle of wodka and this bottle was actively going around, occasionally being mixed with fake Fanta (0,6€ for 3liter!). Around midnight we all decided we needed to leave the apartment to get some fresh air and we found ourselves in a ‘shotbar’. No, this was not a bar where people were shot (I think), but you could buy ridiculously cheap vodkashots, and cocktails-based-on-vodka-shots there. For €12,5 we got 24 (not kidding you!) shots and the five of us put them down one by one. After some more chatting there, we went back to the apartment and hit the bed. The next day was a big chill-day. The original plan was to go to the Tatra-mountains, but the weather was not good enough for this, so we decided to go to a big hill, next to Krakow and chill out for the afternoon. That’s where I started writing both previous posts.
The view from the afternoon @Krakow - Poland
In the evening, just before
midnight, something unexpected happened! All of a sudden Thijs, my ginger buddy from
Holland whom I had met in Argentina on the AFS Trip To The North(halfway the post) back in 2009 and
whom I had seen only a couple of times since, was in Krakow at the same time as
we were! He could stay over as well and he told us all about his roadtrip
(Holland-Gdansk-Torun-Krakow-Holland) and we told him all about our EEET2012…
Extremely weird but so awesome to meet up with him again in the far south of
Poland.
On Monday 16th of July,
day 14 of our EEET2012, the next phase of our trip began. On to Munich,
Germany! I know, I know, we were supposed to pass by Brno (Czech Republic)
first, but trains don’t always work the way we want them to, so we had to
cancel that idea. We went straight to Munich. The train would’ve taken us from
Krakow-Berlin and Berlin–Munich, in seventeen hours for +180euros pp. We
decided to check the planes: we found one for 137,6€ pp. But wait, don’t you
think “Wow nice, by plane from Krakow to Munich, that’s easy! Not so
adventurous, but convenient nonetheless.” I can say you: this was probably the
most adventurous travelling day, concerning flights, in my life. We did not
have a direct flight, neither did we have to change once in some airport. No,
dear readers, we had to change TWO (!) times to get to fu*kin’ Munich! And all
this in a total of less than 7 hours! Thanks LOT – Polish airlines, even the
hostesses at the airports declared us crazy (Katowice is only 81km from
Krakow), but hey it’s not my fault that eDreamscame up with that as the
cheapest option! Check the map.
We got to Munich around 21hr and, after
Toon declared the loss of the rain protector of his backpack, it took us about
1,5hr to get to the centre of Munich, where we were perfectly (read: with a
beer) received by my other awesome roommate from Rennes: Sebastian! Munich it
is!
“Kto nie pamieta historii skazany jest na jej ponowne przezycie” / “The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again” – George Santavana
(Imagine a sinister sound like ‘Jaws’ or something)
Everybody thinks this is the entrance to Auschwitz,
while it's actually the view for the Exit of Birkenau
It is a black page in (German)
history, but after all still a well-organized extermination, an example of what
mankind is capable of doing, a nightmare to many, it is: Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Everyone has heard about it, few
people I know have actually been there. I would say it’s a must do. THE AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU CONCENTRATION CAMPS.
A sinister place where millions of people found death and despair, many
more lost relatives or friends, and world history was influenced heavily by
their existence. I can say you this after our visit: it’s worth every zloty you pay.
Basically Justyna, Billia, Laura,
Toon and me took a bus on Saturday morning from Krakow to Auschwitz, which took
about 1,5hr –we wanted to take the train to Auschwitz but this was not possible
at that time, normally you can do this though-. Once arrived, we noticed we
weren’t the only people here. I am
pretty sure that several thousand people per day visit one of the biggest
graveyards in the world. Yes, the concentration camps are seen as one big
graveyard, as the victims were not buried but burned to ashes.
Note to myself (& to the world:) I was there as a tourist
For about 30 zloty -7,5euros at the
time- per person, we got into a group of visitors with an English-speaking
guide. We started at the famous ‘ARBEIT MACHT FREI’-sign and went into the
actual concentration camp of Auschwitz, which at the time was a prison for
about 10 000 people, mostly Jews, Soviet Prisoners Of War, delinquents, etc. Thanks
to the Polish government, the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau are
almost perfectly preserved and in some of the old buildings, exhibitions take
place all year long. We got to see how people ‘lived’, what they did and even
the ovens were shown to us. It was so surreal to see all this and I didn’t
always take pictures because I just couldn’t bear the idea of making pictures
of places where thousands, even millions of people had suffered so hard. –That’s
also why the pictures you see here are quite ‘censored’.
After a 2,5hr tour we got back to
the main entrance and were given some time to buy souvenirs (Who the F* wants
to buy postcards from Auschwitz???). Toon and me both bought a book with
pictures etc. After that we took the
shuttle bus to Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau, 3km from Auschwitz I and
way bigger. There was room for 100 000 prisoners (!!!) on the 150hectares wide
terrain. 14km of barbed wire was preventing them from escaping. Four ovens
could murder over 5000 people at once when used at the same time. At its
highest point, more than 10 000 people arrived a day per train (up to 100
people in one wagon), making it impossible to organize the camp in any way
–good or bad. 10 people had to sleep on 2m², ending up with +700 people in one
barracks.
I know, these numbers are hard to
understand. I didn’t get them either before. But now I’ve been there. I’ve seen
the pictures of victims. I’ve seen their possessions, taken away from them
brutally by the Nazis. I’ve seen their clothes, shoes, jewelry and things I’d
prefer not sharing with you online. I’ve seen it all. And I’ve learned a lot.
It got Toon and me quiet (And everyone who knows either of us, knows that we do
not easily become silent). The brutal truth hit us. It is true.
A couple of days ago, the leader of
the Greek extreme right nazi-party, said in the Greek parliament that the
concentration camps were a lie. I would recommend him to go there and see for
himself, at least he would see it, hopefully it would change his mind and
definitely he will lose some weight while walking along the hundreds of meters
of barracks and kilometers of barbed wire.
peace out_
Toon&Thibault
Auschwitz' streets and barracks
Map showing the origin of prisonors of Auschwitz
Zyklon Gas B - used capsules
Hallways full of profiles/pictures of (mostly Jewish) victims
On the 12th we all left
Poznan and the eight (Wojciech, Justyna, her boyfriend Billie, Laura, Silke,
Liesbeth, Toon and me) of us took the train to Krakow. A seven hour train ride
and several games later we arrived around 11.30 P.M.
On Friday we did a
Free Walking Tour with a guide so active, he must’ve been on drugs… haha.
During a 2,5hr tour we saw most of the historical city centre of Krakow and the
Wawel castle, just outside the centre. It was a very nice tour, teaching us the
history of the city and its people. I had a very good time walking around with
my friends and looking at the buildings and monuments. But… I must say: my
expectations of this city were higher. Don’t misunderstand me, I liked the city
and the people I was with during the tour. But after hearing so many people and
tourists talk about Krakow, I just thought this city would be as ‘amazing’ and
‘astonishing’ as they had told me. Too bad I didn’t feel what so many other
visitors of this fine city felt. Maybe it’s because I’m used to old and
beautiful cities, like Bruges(How-I-Go-Through-Bruges), but the city did
not meet my expectations. Pitty, because it was actually the first city on
EEET2012 for which I literally had expectations at all. I must repeat: it’s a
nice city yes, but not as awesome as many people say, in my opinion. [See pictures down]
"Liesbeth is coming out of the closet"
After the tour we had another
Zapiekanka, half a baguette with melted cheese and different ingredients on
top. Sort of like with a pizza, where you can choose the toppings as well. We
had a coffee in a bar which looked like the entrance to Narnia (see picture)
and next some free time was used to buy some souvenirs, post cards, write these
postcards, etc. before we had to head back to Justyna’s and Billie’s apartment,
where we all stayed for the weekend (Thanks again for that you two, was
amazing!), to pack up. Yes indeed, this was the end for two of our group
already. Sad but true. Liesbeth and Silke were heading back to Belgium already.
Silke had been in Poland for a week I think. Liesbeth had been with us since
the very beginning of EEET2012. It was a hard goodbye but sometimes people need
to say goodbye in order to be able to say hello again. Yessir, this means that
we are already expecting Liesbeth’s reappearance at Pulain Croatia on the
23th. Can’t wait…
That evening we didn’t do much, we
tried planning the weekend and our trip to Munich, which took us several hours
(more on that in a later post). But it all arranged itself. My next text will
be about Auschwitz. I felt the necessity to accord this daytrip its own post,
you’ll see why when you read it.
peace out_
Toon,Liesbeth&Thibault
The main square of Krakow, biggest one in Europe, with the bar
where Lenin used to meet up with fellow future-sovjet-leaders
Toon, just chilling near some fountain
Posing in Wawel Castle (I think that's the name at least)
On the 10th we said
goodbye to Pawel and Warsaw, a three hour train ride and some catch-up sleeping
later, we all arrived to Poznan on our 8th day of travelling.
Wojciech’s mother was so nice to make us dinner, after which him and me drove
to the airport to pick up Laura! Yes, yet another Erasmus friend had joined
us. Some nice drinking games with vodka
later we hit the bed. A busy day was ahead of us.
We all got
up and had breakfast, takes some time when there are eight people willing to
shower and eat…Wojciech had arranged an
awesome visit to the Lechbrewery, a typical beer from Poland, like Jupiler in
Belgium. At the end of the tour we got a free 0,5l beer. A nice gift after a
two hour tour through a brewery. PS: All this for only 1,5euros…
Group picture in a huge LECH beer can
A quick KFC visit later, four of us, Liesbeth, Wojciech, Toon and me, went to
an awesome water park. Slides and everything included. Note to myself: I love
water parks. After some walking through the city, a small restaurant visit and
a quick visit to Tesco’s (supermarket) which was interrupted by an employee of
Tesco’s dropping a whole crate of chocolat boxes, causing an area of three m²
to be full of chocolat, we hit the bed again. I was so happy after that day. I
do love water parks
The next day was dedicated to the actual visit of the city of Poznan, the
economic centre of Poland and a fine city. I must note: Wojciech is a fine
guide indeed! Thank you for that dude!
peace out_
Toon,Liesbeth&Thibault
Walk on water
Belgian style
Group picture in front of the statue remembering the Polish risings against the Soviets
PS: I know I'm a bit behind on schedule. We've already finished Krakow, the next step on EEET2012, as well. I'll try to update that one tomorrow!
EEET 2012-update:Auschwitz:
I am not usually speechless, but I really have no idea what to say
about this... Hitting the pub now to forget the WWII-madness -
vodkashots please ..
Anyway, Poland is coming to its end, flying to Munich (Krakow-Warsaw, Warsaw-Katowice, Katowice-Munich) on monday, meeting up with Erasmus & argentinean friends.
After washing the first load of
muddy clothes at Pawel’s place, we met up with Justyna and Silke who came over
from Krakow. Next, Pawel’s mother made us some excellent typical Polish dinner.
We then made a late-night walk through the ancient city centre of Warsaw,
before being hit by a thunderstorm right above our heads. First time ever, that
I actually remember, lightning struck right above my head. Crazy experiences
indeed.
Citytripping at 11 PM
The next morning, we met up with
Wojciech and made a long trip through the city of Warsaw. From the city centre,
with its National Museum of Science and Art – erected by the soviets, the
national library, city hall, etc. In the
afternoon we had lunch and chilled on a beach, next to the river Wisla, which
floats from the Tatra Mountains in the south, through Krakow and Warsaw to
Gdansk in the north, and next to the new soccer stadium built for Euro2012.
Colossal building, built by the Soviets - now the Mueseum for Art and Science
View from that same building
Group picture - Belgium and Poland
In the evening we went out to a
so-called dodgy neighborhood in Warsaw where we drank some beers and met some
random crazy Polish people. Intercultural experiences as they say.
On Tuesday we chilled out, packed
our bags, bought a couple of postcards and went for a real ‘kalasjnikov’
(Mitraillette in Belgium, is called kalasjnikov in Poland…). At three we took a
three-hour train ride to Poznan, first capital and economical centre of Poland
and home city of Wojciech. That’s for a next post. It’s almost 1.30AM and
tomorrow we’re going to discover Krakow! I’m off.
After a good night of sleep in the
River Side (motherfucker) hostel, we packed our stuff to head for the Heineken Open'er Festival in Gdynia. In the pouring rain, and after a quick stop at a monument
which remembers the beginning of the end of communism and a picture next to a
piece of the Berlin Wall, we took the train to Sopot, where we walked around
for a while and enjoyed a nice hot chocolate. We met up with Pawel, my Polish
Erasmus friend from Warsaw, who gave us tents for the festival and we hit the
train again for Gdynia!
Piece of the Berlin Wall
Barely inside the camping site, we
met up with three West-Vlamingen (Flemish guys with an accent we barely
understood) and we decided to put up our tents next to each other. I’m not going to write too much about the
festival itself, most of you who know me, know how we roll: sleeping until the
heat of the sun chases you out of your tent, having a beer for breakfast and
chilling on the camping site until we want to see the first group. Not this
time! Basically it was raining every morning when we woke up, and then 30°C for
the rest of the day… Beer, except for
Heineken (but since when is that beer), and other alcohol is not allowed on the
camping site. You’re not allowed to cook on the camping site either. Bands only
start playing around 17hr, so except for a theater, a museum and a movie
theater, there’s nothing to do around the festival until 17hr. A festival site so big, that it takes
literally 30minutes (without crowd traffic or whatsoever) to get from the main stage
to the second biggest stage. And the worst is yet to come: on the festival site
you cannot drink alcohol in front of a stage, you have to stay behind ‘Heras’-fences
until you finish your glass. Who
invented that sh*t?
One thing they couldn’t help: rain,
so much rain…: Mud was the bummer of the weekend
Anyone needs mud?
You need to wash?
Festival, belgian style
Good things are: International and
local top artists for only 95euros for a four days festival, camping included.
1,5euros per 0,4liter of Heineken/ Desperados. A festival on a airfield, so
plenty of space. Little crowd for all the gigs and big screens at all major
stages, so you can easily be in the front to see your favorite artist or band. Two
stages which are located INSIDE an old bunker where airplanes used to be put,
camouflaged from radars and satellites: epic moments indeed. [And yes, they do
know the Tetris dubstep remix here, as well as Gotye’s Somebody I Used To Know].
After realizing there was nothing to
do around the festival during the day, we decided to do some sightseeing in the
cities located around the festival site every day, before heading for the
concerts at night. Our first stop was, yet again, SOPOT, known for its 513m
long pier, it’s a quiet holiday town in the north of Poland. We chilled on the
pier for a couple of hours before taking the boat to …. HEL! Yes, ladies and
gentlemen this trio went on a boat to Hel and back! It was a 1,5hr trip to get
there and unfortunately we only had 30mins to be in Hel –yes, it even was kind
of hot there- -I even went for a quick swim in Hel, and then 1,5hr back. A
successive excursion if you ask us.
We went to Hel and came back alive.
Biggest pier of Poland - official start of EEET 2012
Port Hel - " we went by boat to Hel and back!! "
The next day, we just stayed at the
camping site. We were going to sleep for a bit in the afternoon as we were still
tired of the travelling etc., and Liesbeth and me were still exhausted from
Rock Werchter festival in Belgium. But then again, we were on a festival… We
met a nice Canadian (so nice Canadians do exist!) and chatted for like two
hours about a lot of stuff. He and his brother have this pact with each other
that they do one different festival every year. They’ve been going to a
different festival every year for 13 years now. After all that chitchat, it was
already time to hit the festival again, so no napping for us…
The last day of the festival we went
to GDYNIA and mainly visited the beach, the port etc. Nice to see that in so
little time, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, some cities have become so
touristic and pretty – not that they weren’t pretty before of course-.
Sunday morning, we got up at 6.45
(!!), packed up our bags and tents and dragged ourselves to the train station
of Gdynia where we took the train to Warsaw, together with Pawel. In Warsaw we then
met up with Justyna, Silke (BE) and Wojciech, but that’s for the next post!
Just a small update of our travelling. We are now chilling in Warsaw (Poland) at my friend Pawel's place. We just got back from theHeineken Open'er Festival safe and sound and are now awaiting our fellow Erasmus-friends: Wojciech, Justyna and Silke. I'll update on the past days as soon as possible as we did not only hit the festival, but also visited several cities and even went to HEL! peace out_
We're typing you this message from the River Side (motherfucker) youth hostel in Gdansk, chilling on the couch and listening to Moby's live concert in the Brabanthal(!) in Leuven some years ago.
After picking up Liesbeth and Toon at the railway station in Mechelen, my dearest dad drove us to Eindhoven where we took a Ryanair flight to Gdansk.
After taking the wrong bus (would've been to easy to take the right one straight away right?) we finally ended up in Gdansk, a nice city indeed.
We started looking for a hostel straight away and found this River Side hostel on a tourist guide we got at the airport. Afterwards we headed for the city centre. Gdansk is really a beautiful city and worth visiting, even if it's only for an afternoon or so. The old port is truly remarkable and the nice, colourful and tight houses sometimes remind me of Amsterdam or Switserland...
For dinner we had a pizza and a beer, Liesbeth took chicken nuggets and fries with a coke. All this costed us a small 20euros. You can see what we mean with: we like Poland already.
Tomorrow we're leaving for Sopot, about 15km from here, where we'll meet my Erasmus friend Pawel. He will bring us to the Heineken Open'er Festival which starts tomorrow night. More about that in a next post, which might take a bit longer than 48hours to be posted as I don't know if we'll have internet available...
Now this is not ‘It’, the famous
last shows supposed to be presented by Michael Jackson, before he died, this is
something way different.
This is the start of the EEET 2012.
What-the-fuck is that, I hear you
say?
EEET 2012 stands for: Eastern Europe Eurail Trip 2012.
Stuff to be packed.
A 27-day trip, on 2 planes, through
(at least) 5 countries, (at least) 12 cities, on (at least) 12 trains and without a doubt endless experiences,
meetings and stories to be told after this life changing event. Well, life changing… Will it be? I don’t
really know. Let’s be honest here, I’ve already travelled through 21 countries
during my 21 years on this planet called Earth. I’ve had plenty of experiences,
meetings and story-telling. My goal to visit at least 50 countries before I die
is almost in its half. After July 2012, it will actually be over its half.
Maybe I should adjust my dream... But let’s just see where we are when we reach 45
countries, right?
Enough said about how fabulous I am,
how great my life is and how amazing the people I meet and make friends with
are or have been. Let us look at the future... what will tomorrow bring? No one knows. The only thing I know is that
tomorrow, July 3rd 2012, I’ll be leaving, together with Toon, one of
my best friends, and Liesbeth, my girlfriend on a trip to Eastern
Europe. We’ll be going here:
The Trip.
Leaving by Ryanair from Eindhoven (NL) to Gdansk (Poland), heading for the Heineken Open'er Festival,
meeting all my Polish Erasmus friends in Warsaw, Poznan –where German Mädchen
Anja and Spanish chica Laura will join
us- and Krakow, travelling through the Czech Republic, meeting some of my best
Argentinean friends and my German Erasmus roommate in Munich, travelling
through Austria and Slovenia before enjoying a last week in Croatia visiting
nice cities, beaches and hopefully with the occasional party.
I decided to do this trip after
missing a visit to Argentina in January and after failing to find an internship
in the United States this semester. This
trip is more or less as well the conclusion of my Bachelor studies of Business
management with minor Marketing and Spanish at the Catholic College of Leuven,
of which I graduated June 2012.
What’s next? What will the future
bring? Where will I end up? Honestly, I don’t really care at the moment. The
only thing I am going to do the next few weeks is enjoying my trip, enjoying my
companions and trying to discover as many new things as I can: Europe’s biggest wooden pier, the world’s best know concentration camp, Croatia’s most beautiful
cities… I’ll enjoy them all in different way.
For my followers or casual readers,
I will try to update my blog as often as possible. I don’t know whether I’ll
have internet every day, every other day or even once a week. But you may be
sure that I’ll write down as much as I can, to keep you updated, to maintain
the memories for me and also a bit to make y’all jealous! Haha
