When a trip goes "wrong" - Part II

Polska – 2004

During my Erasmus semester in Krakow, Polska, I wanted to take advantage of a long weekend in November for a trip to the northwest of the country.

Historical note ___________________________________

Between 1918, end of World War I, and 1939, beginning of second, was the short period when Poland was independent as country, after centuries of occupation and invasion of their neighbors (German, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, and the list doesn’t finish).

11th November of 1918, the day when Poles commemorate the return to the map of Europe after centuries of fight and resistance for their lost territory.
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I made myself responsible for organizing the excursion, mobilizing people, to see schedules, to arrange accommodation. With my early experience in organizing tours for the Erasmus in Lisbon, EIN , I learned that in the beginning nobody enrolls to the trips and wait to see who is going. When the deadline arrives, everybody shows interest, when it’s already late to reserve anything.

And it happened like that; I ended up going only with 2 Italian friends who were living with me. Andreas and António:

The bigger group appeared one day later, but with no accommodation reserved, they all had to return home sooner.

The initial plan was Wroclaw and Poznan. For those who are interestes in geography of the trip where goes, click on the map for bigger view:

For more tourist information and more visit the follow site:

http://poland.gov.pl/



There were innumerable small details, that made the visit to 2 interesting cities out of "the typical" tourist destinations went real bad. Adding to the fact that tourism in November it’s out of time, the constant fog and the difficulty in arranging accommodation and transport, due to the holidays, had lain down to earth the flexibility of the trip. Is necessary to have adventurer spirit to travel in Poland anywhere different to the already tourist oriented Krakow.

It seemed that we met only the disagreeable people of the country, when asking information, buying tickets, very hard communication. By the way tourism to a large extent of Poland is something still very recent and is frequent to find intolerant or impatient people with the tourist’s questions and doubts, that insist on talking English.

Well… it isn’t so different for tourists coming to Portugal on a trip to Castelo Branco or Bragança during November.

Although all this, the spirit of the group was high and, as it is verified in the photo, we had a lot of fun. The military parade related to the Independence Day that we attended just after our arrival to Wroclaw was incredible!

Not only troops on the parade, also schools with children carrying masks of known figures of Polish history were on the picture.

Funny that the children when noticing the presence of the 3 tourists started to shout: "Wlochski! Wlochski " that means "Little italians".

Almost all cities of Eastern Europe are proud of their central square (rynek glowny), therefore is common that the city hall buildings are always interest points and to have the most varied forms and colors.

Rynek Glowny in Wroclaw:



The negative degrees temperatures and the intense fog turned the visit to "really fast".

Although, the magical athmosphere of the foggy buildings, Os graus negativos e o nevoeiro marcaram a rapidez, mas no entanto, a atmosfera mágica da visita à cidade, tornando incríveis as fotos à fachada do antigo edifício universitário:

Then we had saturday night fever in the great student's nightlife of Wroclaw, that made my health situation worse. But only in Poznan the fever got higher.

After our arrival to Poznan we only managed accommodation for one night, so trip became shorter one day.

Almost all day i was visiting friends that i knew in town and because it wasn't my first visit to town, i only joined the other travellers in the next morning for a tour on downtown.

In my opinion, excluding Kraków, central square in Poznan is the most beautifull of all polish cities. The narrow, straight houses are fresh painted and give a pitoresc look to it all. The main building (Ratusz) in the centre looks more like a cathedral then anything else. Looking to the next photo it seems that hundreds of peple are looking amazed to a public WC.



No! Nothing weird... The most touristic moment in the Poznan square, is the 12pm ring clock of Ratusz, where 2 goats come out and clash their horns 12 times. That's for what all tourists were waiting for...

UUUAAAUUUU… Impressive… Fantasticzny!



For the tourists without a guide book or without previous planning, the tourism information points are like oasis in a desert of uncertainly, doubts and anxiety. So our last drop of patience on a dificult trip, was in closed information office in Poznan during the weekends. Anyway who's gonna need tourism informations on a weekend?

The roll of paper that is hanging on the door locker is a reclamation in "strong english slang" that some revolted tourist left to the authorities.

And i think again to myself: "Don't complain! The Ask me about Lisboa information point in Rua Augusta is closed 2, sometimes 3, hours for lunch and is closed on sundays..."

No more options we had to return to Kraków in a trip of 4 hours in a full train, with the central heating broken and with 38º of fever. Thinking: "Next weekend i stay home and study for the exams". It's easier...

I reinforce again that although there are good and "less good" moments in all trip, the last ones are the ones that stick harder to our memories. The problems and dificulties give great funny stories to tell later.