MEXICO VIAJE

MEXICO VIAJE

Bienvenido, Welcome, Bienvenue

Hope you enjoy my travel blog, comments are not necessary but much appreciated.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Parting reflections on Prague

Perhaps I was a little harsh on Prague in my last blog.  Upon reflection we won't have been here long enough to properly assess it.  Apparently there is a square but we were unable to find it,unable to even walk around too long because of the weather.  Rain and getting wet will do that to you.  Stan is also nursing the end of a cold while I caught a whiff of it myself.  Not viable excuses but they will have to do.  I'm sure Prague has a lot to recommend itself for and has been loved by countless other travelers.  We went for a walk in the evening and did see some lovely buildings and a fairy tale looking church complete with turrets.  We ate at the Bohemian restaurant, settling for burgers which were very meaty but unfortunately under cooked.  It was cool to see kids and dogs in bars, common enough in most of Europe, I had forgotten how great that can be. 
It does look lovely doesn't it? Adios for now.

Hello Prague

We are officially in Prague, arrived yesterday courtesy of Polski Bus and first impressions are of the so-so variety but first a few words in praise of Polski Bus.  We went from Gdansk to Warsaw, Warsaw to Krakow, Krakow to Prague for the unbelievable sum IN TOTAL of 151 zlotys which is approximately $51.00 and that's for the two of us.  These prices are unbeatable, cheaper than Mexico and that's saying a lot considering Mexico has extremely competitive prices.  Other travelers appear to have had a somewhat negative experience with this company, rude drivers, delays, cramped seats, "midget size" toilet, WiFi connectivity not great, people who sit where they want etc...That was not our experience. Yes the drivers  did not speak English but why is there an expectation that everywhere one goes, all over the damn world, everybody should and must speak English.  Frankly it's annoying and disturbing.  We travel to experience other cultures not to seek and find the same thing we left at home.   Sure it's helpful if one can understand the language and yes Stan speaks Polish but even if he hadn't been there I would have managed just fine.  Most of the buses are direct.  You get in at one end and off at another.  The only bus who stopped somewhere else was the bus to Prague and it was clearly indicated where you were, I don't understand what the problem might have been for other travelers.  They're just a bunch of whiny little babies, sorry but some of them expect royal service on a shoe string budget.  I've traveled all over the world and made efforts everywhere I went to speak whatever little local language I could without the expectation that they would know mine.  OK enough of a rant.  If you don't mind long bus rides in fairly comfortable buses I would recommend this company, enough said.
Driving into the Czech country was not much of a contrast except the roads were in much better condition.  Poland needs new roads that's for sure.  This highway was a paying highway in Poland but stopped being so once we entered the Czech Republic.  Noticeably there were no panels filled with ads along the road.  Poland is littered with them, they're quite unsightly especially around Zakopane, they were everywhere.  In the Czech Republic they filled up the panels with the Czech flag instead of removing them completely.
The arrival at the bus station was a bit complicated.  It was dark, we were tired, we didn't have a map of Prague or any of their currency which is the koruna (1 $ equals about 17.64 czk) not the easiest conversion and frankly we haven't been really bothering.
The cab driver knew where the hotel was. The hotel is called the Park Hotel and it's a big, square, glass building, not at all what I expected but good enough.  It's not in the old town of Prague but there are plenty of old buildings around.  We were hungry and had Vietnamese food, not very good and too expensive for what we got.  There are plenty of Asian restaurants around more than in Poland but they all seem a little questionable.  We love Vietnamese food and after two experiences here we're not impressed.
The next day it was raining pretty hard.  I suggested we take a tramway to the older section of Prague but first we went for breakfast at a coffee shop.  Weird breakfast with cucumber slices, tomatoes, two stringy pieces of white toast, slices of ham and cheese plus some bocconcini like cheese and a croissant on the side....like I said weird although the coffee was good.  There doesn't appear to be any buses in Prague. The whole public system runs with these very efficient tramways on rails which is great since they're never bogged down by traffic.  We took number 17 which did get us close to old town but we continued on since it was still raining. Went all the way to the end where we had to get off and hop back on another number 17 going in the opposite direction.  Lots of Soviet era buildings in the burbs and an unbelievable amount of graffiti.  It's a pain in most European capitals but I have to say Prague has really outdone itself when it comes to tagging. Every available surface which can be tagged has been, even upright standing poles for electricity, doors to private buildings, buildings themselves, signs, fences, you name it it's tagged.  It's extremely distracting.  I suppose if you only go to the old part of Prague you might not notice this as much but it was hard to miss for us.  We did get off at a bridge into the old city which was again filled, to the brim, with tourists.  Lots of beautiful old buildings, shops which sell the usual "tourist" crap, restaurants, cobblestone streets but no big meeting area plazas like in Warsaw or Krakow.  We preferred those two cities by a mile and then some. Yes it was raining and shoving your way through masses of people with umbrellas is no fun but the mood of the place is off somehow, sort of sour.  It's not a shiny, happy place full of vim and vigor it felt aged and tired frankly we did not enjoy old Prague or the little we saw of it. The weather might have had a role to play but regardless of weather the atmosphere was not "sympathique".
In the afternoon, the sun came out.  I went out for a walk by myself. There's a sort of hush to the place, it's all quiet and subdued. Found where they shop for groceries, kind of small, poor selection of fruits and vegetables, the bakery section slightly bigger than our room which isn't very big.  The buildings appear to be somewhat neglected, the stores I saw were more on the rundown end of the scale.  I found a bustling place with second hand goods, mostly clothes for women. Went in and was not impressed with the quality of the stuff.  We sell way better stuff in our cafe in Ste. Adele, much cheaper too. They had coats for around $18.00 (more like jackets) we sell them for about $5.00 to $8.00.  In any case it was a popular spot.  I noticed a lot of bars. Stan loves the beer Pilsner Urquell one of the best beers around.  I tasted it and it is very very good.
I'm sure Prague might be a great experience for other travelers but in our case it just didn't do it.  Poland was definitely the highlight.
This will be the last entry for my blog.  I've written about Paris before, don't want to repeat myself. I've written quite a bit about France in general. There are many different entries in my blog including some film criticism when I got bored and wanted to write something.  Hope you enjoyed reading this those of you who took the time.  It's fun to write but it's also great to be read so thank you.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Auschwitz Birkenau and a few random thoughts upon leaving Poland

Left around 10:00 for our final tour, the most momentous one, to Auschwitz Birkenau.  We were picked up in a brand new mini Mercedes bus and the irony wasn't lost on me although it appears to have been lost on everybody else.  German efficiency at its best efficiency which we would soon encounter in Auschwitz where around 6,000 people a day were ruthlessly murdered. Auschwitz was one of the biggest concentration camps with Birkenau functioning as a sort of satellite camp where people were housed in the most appalling, inhuman conditions.  Both camps had gaz chambers as well as crematoriums, the ashes were dispersed in ponds on the Birkenau site.  The Nazis never dug any graves, everybody who died was cremated so as not to leave any traces of what was being done under the "cover of war".
I don't have too much to write about the visit, it's too horrific to contemplate and even more horrific to imagine. Even being physically there doesn't give you the full scope of how truly awful it must have been with the dogs, the constant barking, the crying, the mud (it was very muddy where grass is now found) the big lights, the incessant screaming in German, the smell of rotten bodies, the fear the smells coming from the crematorium, the ash falling like flakes.  The crematoriums worked on a 24 hour schedule especially during the last year of the war when Hitler was desperate to carry out his "final solution". It truly is amazing to contemplate the ingenuity, the skill, the intelligence, the efficiency, the organization which went into the act of killing untold amounts of people on a scale never before imagined. 
The most horrifying was seeing mountains of human hair used for all manner of things which I prefer not to think about.  People were taking a lot of pictures but I didn't feel like taking a single photo. There are many photos on the internet for those of you who want to see what it looked like.  We were pretty horrified to discover some graffiti on the wood in some of the barracks and on one entire wall in a barrack housing young children ages 2 to 14 in Birkenau.  Silly graffiti of names, hearts, so and so loves the usual drivel which certainly smacks of disrespect in a place where so many have died. It really pissed me off.  We were glad we went, it wasn't a pleasant visit but the memory of the horror perpetrated there must live on. It's essential lest we forget.

Parting thoughts on Poland:


  1.  The Poles like to visit their own country many of them in groups here and in Warsaw, in Gdansk as well.
  2. Polish food is not very varied with heavy emphasis on meat, not too many options for vegetarians or vegans although apparently Warsaw is the capital of vegans in Poland. We only saw one vegetarian restaurant there.
  3. The country is mostly white, even in Krakow not too many foreigners of a different color or immigrants.  Stan's relatives are deathly afraid of immigrants mostly Muslim, even though there are hardly any in Poland. 
  4. Poland is probably one of the most affordable countries to visit in Europe especially for Canadians, good value for the exchange rate.
  5. Generally service is not of the highest quality especially in ordinary stores which don't cater to a tourist clientele.  They can be sort of surly, ok that was our experience and probably a gross over generalization.
  6. I will never ever become conversant in Polish, it's too damn hard to pronounce.
  7. There are a lot of cars, too many, the traffic is horrendous.
  8. KFC is very very popular especially in the countryside although it's also found in the cities with Macdonald having a premier place.  
  9. Everybody is wired to the max, hardly anybody without a phone except us. 
  10. There's a lack of good highway but the more roads they build, the more cars will travel on them. It's the same where we live.
  11. The Russian nesting dolls are very very popular. Stan had assured me we would never find them here, he was wrong. They're everywhere.
  12. Paczki (polish donuts) and cheesecake both are way better in Montreal, at Jean-Talon market. They were a huge disappointment.
  13. We enjoyed our time here, we discovered a lot of new places, there is a lot to see and do in Poland. 
Side note:  Running shoes are the shoes of choice of the entire planet (it seems).  No matter what the nationality or gender or age, most people are wearing sneakers brand name sneakers.