Photos: Lithuania and Poland

Up Wawal Hill at the castle in Krakow

Auschwitz

View of Market Square from our hostel, Krakow

Warsaw Uprising Monument, Warsaw

Warsaw Old Town

View over Vilnius from the Hill of the Three Crosses

Trakai, Lithuania

Vilnius main square

Ahh-choo!

So to pick up from where we left off, our second day in Vilnius we took a day trip out to a place called Trakai, 45 minutes by bus. The main attraction there is the castle, Eastern Europe’s only castle on an island. It is a very pretty and peaceful place, and we enjoyed a few beverages at a cute little café overlooking the water. That night in Vilnius we cooked our own meal of dumplings, sausages and salad, and had a great night hanging out in the hostel kitchen chatting to our some of our fellow guests. The last day we spent exploring some more. Our first stop was the Uzupis Republic, a tongue-in-cheek breakaway state with its own president, flag and constitution. We then climbed the Hill of the Three Crosses for some fantastic views across the city, before sitting down to a delicious lunch of zeppelins (potato dumplings with a meat filling), cottage dumplings, and a dish the menu called Masters’ Chicken (Dave was happy to get a photo with that!)
At the moment we are in Warsaw, Poland, having arrived here at 10 to 6 this morning on an overnight bus which blasted us with unwanted air con all night. We dumped our bags at our hostel, and set off down the Royal Way to explore the Old Town, which was levelled during WWII by the Germans after the Warsaw Uprising and has been reconstructed. I swear, every school in Poland must be having an excursion today – there are large groups of children of varying ages EVERYWHERE. After, we took a walk over to the Jewish suburbs, where we visited the moving Pawiak Prison Museum, containing exhibits and photos of Polish Jews and their war experience under the Nazis, before a yummy lunch of Polish pirogi. Tomorrow we will jump on a train for the 3 hour journey to Krakow.
Pics to follow.

Ballet and Borsch

So we have just come off two busy days in beautiful St Petersburg. After arriving at 7am on the overnight train, we headed down Nevsky Prospekt (making a quick pit stop at Maccas for some breakfast) and dropped off our bags at the hostel. Our first stop for the day was the marvellous Winter Palace. Wow, what a sight. We made our way through the courtyard to the entrance to the Hermitage museum, where we spent a good two and a half hours.
Next up was the Church on Spilled Blood, the interior of which is amazing - covered in colourful mosaics. After stopping at a Russian bistro for a lunch of borsch and fried potatoes with garlic (yum), we made our way back to the hostel to freshen up before heading out again.
Suitably attired, we headed over to the Mariinsky Theatre to pick up our tickets for the classical ballet, Raymonda. After a pre show snack and drink, we took our (extremly good) seats. Wow!! The ballet was fantastic, and the costumes colourful. Afterwards we stopped off for coffee and cake before turning in.
The next day, after partaking of our hostels' free weekend breakfast of pancakes and Russian jam, we took off for the HI International Hostel, the meeting spot for Peter's Walking Tours. For the next 5 hours we traversed the city on foot, stopping for a couple of coffee breaks and a chat with our guide and fellow walkers. It was possibly the best walking tour I have ever done. We were shown parts of the city we never would have seen, we found out more about the history of St Petersburg, specific buildings and the well known residents that inhabited them, and we passed some seriously weird sights (the Museum of Radiation Hygiene anyone?) Afterwards, we made our way back to the hostel via the Bronze Horseman statue and St Isaac's Cathedral, stopping at the souvenir markets next to the Church on Spilled Blood, where some serious haggling was undertaken (that was Dave's responsibility.) We then made our way to the train station for our overnight train to Lithuania.
We are currently in Vilnius, getting ready to head out for some cheap beers and Lithuanian food. We have spent today exploring the pretty Old Town, and have visited the Museum of Genocide Victims, housed in the old KGB headquarters. The exhibits cover the Lithuanian experience under Soviet rule and the resistance movement, and on the lower level is a chilling KGB prison.
Until next time.