Tribute to Wroclaw

Simon writes:

Wroclaw (Southwest Poland) is, dear friends, bloody marvellous! A very nice lass called Monika rescued us at the international bus station and helped us book an overnight bus from Warsaw to Vilnius (the people at the international bus ticket office didn't speak English).

The town itself has a beautifully restored square, a 360 degree painting of the Polish army trouncing the Russians in 17something (gotta love that!) and a river/waterway that can be paddled on/fished in all round the town.

In the evening we ate Polish dumplings, potato pancakes and sweet beetroot soup washed down with beer. Later we hit the town, eschewing Polish oompah music wherever we found it. The Poles don't do it as egregiously as the Austrians or the Germans (or even the Swiss for that matter!) by the way. However, oompah music is oompah music and you'll not find me paying hard currency, no matter what its value, to listen to it, let alone dance to it! Still the place we ended up in was devoid of the toe-curling British stag do crowd and full instead of Polish students at the beginning of their university year. Beer was less than 2 quid a pint. Nuff said.

Simon writes:

As promised, here's a pic of the Penguins in Prague, which I formally declare the mullet capital of the world! This accolade is surely one of its most appealing attributes. On to Wroclaw then, which as Noelle said is just lovely lovely lovely! Here are the penguins enjoying the view:

Bus from Prague to Wroclaw

Noelle writes:

See now I can't get enough of the blog.

As Simon mentioned in an earlier entry we were lucky enough to get two tickets for the 'apparently' over-booked bus from Prague to Wroclaw, Poland yesterday. As we boarded to bus destined for Minsk (that's nearly 24 hours on the bus) everything seemed to be normally enough. It wasn't exactly a luxurious bus, nor was it what we are used to in Canada and the UK, but it was nice enough (pic below after the trip). We got seats right up front with good leg room and were off just ten minutes behind schedule (not bad).

Little were we to know that the trip would end up being a six hour ride in a sauna. No air conditioning (which was fair enough) but no air circulation to speak of. It got to the point where we would come to a crawl going through small towns and they would open the door to the bus as we were moving just to get some fresh air in.

I have no idea how those who were heading to Minsk survived the trip but I imagine we'll experience similar or worse by the time we get to India.



PS I love Wroclaw and would recommend it to anybody and everybody! Thanks for the suggestion Jay!

Transportation in Prague

Noelle writes:

I feel like I've been neglecting the blog a little so thought I'd write something about my near fatal tumble in Prague (huge exaggeration).

A word of caution to those attempting the metro in Prague. The escalators are FAST! Two to three times faster than those in London tube stations. Some even have a lovely little decline right before you step onto them of about 45 degrees so that you are propelled onto this super fast moving escalator that is the length of those at Holborn (LONG).

So my guess is that when they first put these escalators in everyone would approach to have a look but would be too scared to actually get on them. So the designers probably went back to the drawing board and decided to put a big invisible slope right before the escalators so that next time people went to have a look they were launched onto it.

Lucky for me Simon was in front to catch me on my first attempt. Funnily enough there are no signs (as in the London tube stations) that tell you how many injuries occur each year on the escalators. My guess is there are either way too many or it's just me. I'll let you be the judge.

Prague

Simon writes:

We took a beautifully appointed night train from Vienna to Prague, but didn¨t sleep well. Prague is lovely enough. Hourdes of tourists. Beautiful squares etc. Much anticipated pic of the penguins taken in the main square to follow shortly. CBA just at present.

We did go to a very interesting exhibition about Kafka cos it was raining this morning. Very cerebral and a bit weird.

We had a "computer says no" moment yesterday when trying to book bus tickets over the mountains to Wroclaw, which I am quite excited about. Today it was no problem for some reason.

Vienna and surrounds

Simon writes:

We´re coming to the end of our two days (three nights) in Vienna and it´s bloody marvellous! The picture above is of us with Susie and Mannie (hope I´ve spelt the names right!), who took us round town, entertained us for dinner in the museum district and Buchteln in Cafe Hawelka - v famous cafe run by the same couple for sixty years etc etc. Susie went to Durham so the tenuous connection was enough to get us an introduction. Lovely people they are too!

Just kinda been dossing around today not doing much. Nice place to do it mind. The penguins are having to get used to new food. This was made clear to them at the start so I don´t know what they´re complaining about. In the end we had to eat the strudel for them (see below).

Yesterday we went on a bike ride, got lost and ended up in the woods. We were hoping to get to the top of a big hill outside Vienna to see some amazing views:

We then whizzed down through the vinyards and wineries (most of which were closed):

We demanded wine off one poor vintner anyway and bought a bottle of Viennese white more out of guilt than anything.

Can´t recommend Vienna enough.

Simon out.

PS People in Vienna are lovely and we ate sausage.

Clothes horse

Noelle writes:

Well with a title like that it`s obviously me writing this and not Simon.

So I finally caved today and went clothes shopping. I `needed` another top and came out with two and a pair of shorts.

I forgot how much fun it is to try on clothes! And buy them of course :)

PS I love Vienna!!