Re-evaluation of the Polish train system

From Augustow the plan was to catch a night train to Malbork, spend a few hours there and then continue by another 6.5 hour train to Szczecin. This journey has proved to be a little nightmare of its own.The first leg of the trip was relatively comfortable...

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Kayaking in Rospuda

My original itinerary had included a couple days in the Masurian Lake District spent either kayaking, hiking, biking or simply soaking in this world renowned area. However, given the general shortage on time at my disposal I had started considering...

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Augustow & Rospuda: back in Poland

The couchsurfing might be over and done with, but the hospitality is never-ending. I said bye to Dalius and Armin and got on the train back to Poland. With the school holidays having begun, the crowds were quite impressive. I don’t think that there was a single seat free in the final train across the border and into Poland.Once in Augustow I was met...

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Vilinus and Lithuania: my last country and most northerly stop ever

With absolutely stunning weather, skies that never really went fully dark at night, and a gorgeous blue sky by 4am, it is difficult not to have been impressed by my short stay in Lithuania. We looked it up, because I seriously could not remember such...

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Puszcza Bialowieska: Poland’s highly acclaimed wild forest

The Bialowieza National Park is Poland’s oldest national park. It is recognized by Unesco as both a Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage site and boasts over 100 species of birds, along with elk, wild boars, wolves and the European bison (zubr). Given...

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Rzeszow: A city full of surprises

Rzeszow was not pretty or important enough to find its way into my guidebook, nor was Lancut, and yet I am incredibly glad I made a stop there.I was hosted by Robert and was immediately made to feel right at home. He took time off from writing his master...

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Train travel in Poland: And they say North America is the land of milk and honey

So if I was impressed by the buses in Turkey and the night trains into and out of the Ukraine, I am now in awe of the new Regional Train service in Poland. Newly implemented and with the lowest prices, the RegioExpress is a brand new set of fully airconditioned trains which includes the following: TV screens that tell you what stops are upcoming, when...

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Lwow: Almost home but not quite

There is something Polish about Lwow that goes beyond the mere similarity in language (aside for the alphabet). I can’t put a finger on it, but once I arrived, I felt that I was close, albeit not exactly at home. It may have been the look of the Old...

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Ykpaiha

No. I have not become dyslexic. It was back again to the Cyrillic alphabet for a couple of days, so the y’s are u’s, the p’s are r’s and the h’s are n’s, and that’s the easy part. Truth be said it wasn’t too bad and nothing in comparison to the fantastic...

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Fashion Crimes

During this trip I’m sure that I committed my share of fashion crimes and I most definitely saw my share of them: the half a dozen mullets I saw in Lwow; the orange hairdos and the 80’s style hairdos (take my word for it, they were truly taken straight...

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Eger: The highly acclaimed Hungarian town that fell short

When in Budapest, our hostel attendants could not stop raving about how beautiful Eger was; that it has an amazing old town as well as a castle that manage to hold off the Turks that is still standing, etc.In reality, it is a relatively small town, with a pretty but relatively unimpressive old town, Europe’s northernmost, but slightly unimpressive...

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Budapest

Just to wrap up Pecs I should also mention the insane storm that rolled through the city in the early morning hours. The rain was so hard that it woke me up even with earplugs in. This was still before the thunder and lightning began. Once that started,...

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Hungary: A country of the most indecipherable language ever.

Our train ride to Pecs did indeed turn into a relaxing journey. Julita managed to fall asleep on the benches at the train station (and would likely have slept through the arrival and departure of the train); she then fell asleep across the seats in the...

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Exploring Slovenia

On our following day in Slovenia we decided to rent a vehicle. As good as public transportation is, there simply are no buses that go over high mountain passes, along scenic routes or cover the entire country in a matter of two days. Turned out that...

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Slovenia: From Ballet to Tractors

From Ljubljana we headed to Lake Bled where we were picked up by Florjan, our next couchsurfing host. He took us around the lake where we got to photograph what must be the most prolific postcard setting ever: a little island with a church in the middle...

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Ljubljana: A fantastic introduction to Slovenia

Well, Zagreb might have free public transportation in its city center, but Ljubljana has the free concerts and festivals in its main squares happening throughout the entire summer.I did not mention it before, but yes, Zagreb did have completely free...

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Croatia in Closing

Given the amount of hype Croatia gets as a fantastic tourist destination, I must say I expected more and am not sure whether it would place anywhere near the top of my must see or must return to list.First and foremost we found most Croatians that we encountered to be quite rude. A perfect example of it was the hostess in a highly recommended restaurant....

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The end of Croatia: From a pleasant jungle to a concrete jungle

After 8.5 hours, 16 lakes, 18 km and nearly 500 photos we can finally say that we saw Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was definitely one of the highlights of all of Croatia and a place not to be missed.The Plitvice Lakes National Park lies between...

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Split: Where modern meets traditional

Split is Croatia’s second-largest city with a population of over 180,000, yet when in the Old Town you feel as if it is a city of several thousand. It is free of the mass tourism that plagues places such as Dubrovnik, but it is nevertheless always buzzing:...

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The Croatian Coast

Over the recent years, Croatia has become a massive tourist destination and deservedly so. With over 1700km of coastline and over a thousand islands dotting the turquoise waters of the Adriatic, there truly aren’t many places that can compete with it.We...

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Dubrovnik: Croatia’s southern-most gem

It’s Thursday evening and the sun is about to set. I’m sitting on the windowsill of our little room looking west. If not for one house in front of me I would have a clear view of the Adriatic and the setting sun. But life is not perfect so I won’t complain...

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Montenegro: Kotor and the Adriatic Coast

From Mostar we headed via Dubrovnik straight on to Kotor, a little town on the shores of a fjord-like inlet. There truly could not be a more picturesque setting. The steep mountains start virtually on the shoreline leaving the town to hug the small...

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Sarajevo & Mostar: More food, relaxation and frustrating tours

Our second morning in Sarajevo started with an attempt to wake up for the sunrise. Our alarm was set for 5am assuming that sunrise was closer to 6am. Unfortunately this assumption was based on our experience in Istanbul and failed to take into account...

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