No we weren´t killed in Eastern Europe! In fact we returned from there back to Germany quite some time ago! This might be an extra long blog due to the length of time since my last blog, so please feel free to just skim ahead to the pictures...
After we left the Polish Baltic coast we headed towards Warsaw. Warsaw has a beautiful old town but the new part of the city can seem a bit depressing and bleak. Getting public transport in Poland was also a bit of a shock after having been spoilt by German trains for some time now, the signage was less clear, they were pretty cramped and just kinda old and a bit grotty looking.
Our Camping spot in Warsaw was in a paid camp ground that I saw in my guidebook. Although we found most things in Poland to be cheaper than western Europe, camp grounds were the exception, our camp spot per night actually cost a bit more than we were used to paying in Germany and the standards for the facilities was lower. The place was almost booked out by a big group of campervans all travelling together so we found ourselves one of the last remaining spots near the pool, unfortunately the pool hadn´t been used for years but was still full of water, so was party central for mosquito larvae. The good news was that we were camped beside a really lovely French couple who invited us to have a drink with them and, although they didn´t speak much English so it was a bit awquard, they invited us to stay at their home if we visit France again and even showed us pictures of their grown up children and grandchildren - such sweet people - and further evidence against my husband's stereotyped ideas of the French. Win!
 |
| Warsaw´s old town |
From Warsaw we drove straight across to Krakow. Krakow somehow escaped destruction in WWII and is really beautiful and definately worth a trip - the secrets out though as there were tourists everywhere. Poland is particularly special to me due to it being my grandfather´s place of origin, and apparently the legend goes that Krakow was founded by a Prince Krakus, ´Krakus´is awfully close to my maiden name of ´Rakus´ so I can only believe that I have royal blood and my famiy have something to do with the founding of Krakow. This belief may require a slight stretch of the imagination and a minor distortion of names but I always felt I was special so it must be true...
The forest and countryside in Poland was some of the most beautiful I have seen anywhere this trip. It was particularly beautiful around the rural areas north near the Baltic sea and the drive from Warsaw to Krakow was gorgeous. From Krakow we drove to Węgierska Górka, the little village where my grandfather comes from, and the hills and forest around there were also very beautiful.
 |
| The view of Węgierska Górka as we drove towards the Slovakian border |
The downsides to Poland were the amount of speed cameras along the roads, and lack of clear speed signage, so we were never 100% sure if we were speeding or not. Also, we found the Soviet style buildings that dominated some towns and cities, quite sad and depressing looking. I did most of the driving in Poland as it takes particular patience to drive across a country full of speed cameras with no signs, and roads in such bad condition that occasionally we would have to abruptly slow from 80km to 40km, a patience my husband doesn´t possess - and his swearing was doing my head in so...
We did love seeing the stalk birds that make their huge nests on top of power poles all around the country.
 |
I didn´t manage to get a photo myself, but just had to show you, so I found
this pic of exactly what they looked like from shutterstock.com |
Oh and there´s a supermarket chain in Poland that has the cutest little ladybird as it´s logo.
After we left Poland we drove through Slovakia straight to Vienna, Austria, where we stayed a few nights before heading to Munich, Germany.
 |
| Munich Olympic Stadium |
 |
Munich old town - SO many People and a really hot day -
some People were even cooling off in the cities fountains |
A couple of weeks ago we experienced a week long heat wave in Europe which started a few days before we arrived in Munich . I remember my brother, who has spent a lot of time in Europe, telling me about how difficult the heat is to deal with in Europe, and I remember thinking he must just be a wuss because there was no way Europe could get heat like I was used to in Australia. Turns out he was right though. The reason the heat in Europe is so hard to deal with is that the Europeans seem to have no plan or demonstrate any prepardness for it. Most of the public transport is not air-conditioned, Zac and I caught a train in Germany during the heat wave ,and it was actually dramatically cooler outside the train. We went to a mall in Munich to try to escape the heat but we discovered the mall was not airconditioned either. Our only relief came the day before we went back to house-sit the sausage-dog again, a 10 minute drive from her house is this beautiful tranquil swimming hole. It seems the place to be when it´s hot is the country side, not the cities.
 |
| A beautiful spot to cool down |
