Welcome in Poland

MAIN SQUARE, KRAKOW: The main square of the old town is one place that every tourist has to visit when in Krakow. It was designed in 1257 and has remained more or less the same since then in terms of the layout and structure. At 3.79 hectares it is one of the biggest medieval squares in Europe. Pictures supplied

Phil and Sue Newdick travel on from the Baltic States into Poland — first enjoying two days in the relatively quiet eastern city of Bialystok, before heading to wonderful Krakow in the south . . .

We had opted for another bus ride from Lithuania to Bialystok in Poland, to gain access to the EU railway. It included another date line, an after-dark arrival and a 1km hike through unknown territory with our suitcases.

We placed our faith in the offline OsmAnd GPS we had downloaded on to the phone. It was pretty scary. The app took us through all the back alleys around apartments, street lighting was almost non-existent and the local dogs were all spooked by the flashing wheels on “The Suitcase” — one we had worn the wheels off on a previous trip and replaced with scooter wheels, which came with magnetic flashing lights.

We need not have worried. The app did its job and Bialystok seemed to be another one of the “safe” places we have visited.

One of the eastern-most Polish towns, it was well worth a visit and the people seemed to go out of their way to be helpful. Perhaps the destruction by the Nazis, which reduced the historic parts of the city to almost zero, has kept away the mainstream tourists. Whatever the case, the slower pace suited us.

The memory of the young woman at the information centre, who shared her enthusiasm for the 200-plus year old clock in her charge, will remain with us for a long time. As will the taste of the Polish sausages that we could have become totally addicted to. The mid-August weather gave us a taste of what summer should be like, and we had two days with mainly sunshine, mild 20C-plus days and lows in the mid-teens.

Dragging our cases to the railway station for our next journey, we dodged the puddles and the showers. The temperature was a little cooler, around the 19C forecast — a good day for travel. Our train was a very modern, comfortable ride with Wi-Fi. We travelled Bialystok to Warsaw, then Warsaw to Krakow, arriving mid-afternoon — which gave us time to settle into our next home away from home and collect a few stores.

Our three-month journey seemed to be racing past. We were missing certain things like family and friends, but what we saw and experienced really opened our eyes to how much we have at home, and how much we take it for granted.

Our introduction to Krakow was via the Glowny railway station. The platforms are on the top level of a four-level shopping centre that is larger than the Gisborne CBD.

The three shopping levels below just go on forever. It is hard to work out how much is actually above ground because it seems to be on sloping ground, and levels that seem to go down exit into open air. There are several supermarkets, the largest a Carrefour hypermarket which is the biggest supermarket we have ever seen; it took three visits before we had reached all the extremities.

Our almost new, roomy apartment was a short 400 metre walk from the station. The weather had finally settled down and delivered clear days and a warm 23-25C. The only cloud on our heaven turned out to be workmen in the apartment above ours; the power tools they were using sounded like machine guns in our space. However, when we complained they went away and were replaced by our landlord bearing a nice apologetic bottle of wine.

Krakow is a very walkable city and there is still quite a lot of the older part of the city that has survived time and WW2. The newer part of the town is a work in progress and evidently is constantly changing. A lot of English is spoken and the locals are generally very friendly and helpful.

On our last full day we took a guided tour of the Krakow Salt Mine. A very different situation to what we had been led to believe in the Siberian salt mines, this mine has been worked for hundreds of years. It has been tunnelled down to depths that make the mind boggle, and the miners were paid very well. Seems hard to comprehend that so much of the salt for our cooking and food was obtained this way. The mine is not just about the salt, it is a wonderful piece of history and a good inclusion on any travelling schedule.

The Glowny station we arrived at also houses the bus station we were to depart from, on our next leg to Slovakia. There is no train service between Slovakia and Western Europe, but where we could not ride the rail we found the bus services excellent.

Leaving a wonderful city like Krakow is always a bit sad, but there are always different places and new experiences beckoning — this time for us it was the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava . . .