Krakow- cold, crazy cats and Communist canteens.

Our Central/Eastern European adventure began not in Krakow but Paris. After a 4 hour Covoiturage (9 strangers in a big white van watching Jamie Foxx film 'Ray' (in French, of course) must have looked hilarious to other motorists), we arrived in the city of dreams. Luckily Jackie knew some CouchSurfing hosts in Paris so we dumped our bags at their flat and had a play with Dégage, their adorable if not slightly annoying kitten. Literal translation of 'Dégage'= clear off, go away. Very fitting! After a quick cuppa we headed to the Moulin Rouge, Montmartre and to the Café des 2 Moulins, made famous by Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amélie). Was a bit of a let down to be honest, lots of tourists (predictable) and high prices. Our afternoon/evening in Paris was a bit of a failure- headed to the Musée d'Orsay which had already closed, ditto the Louvre. Still, had time for some comedy pictures outside the world famous Louvre glass triangle.

I love how blasé I have become about going to Paris. It's a nice attitude to have. Still the favourite I think.

After wandering around rainy Paris all day, we got one of the last RER trains out to Charles de Gaulle airport, which shall forever be known as the airport where I had to spend a night sleeping on the floor. And when I say sleeping, I of course mean not sleeping. We had to kip in the airport because our flight to Krakow was so early that there was no public transport to get us there on time, plus we didn't want to fork out on a hostel in Paris for a mere few hours. Upon arrival around midnight, we settled down on the floor outside a cafe. It was really nice of the airport personnel to switch off the heating around 2am. It made for an even more pleasant night.

Can you tell I'm joking?

Anyway, the important thing is we made it to Krakow! After taking a train into the centre, then negotiating Krakow's extensive tram network we arrived in Nowa Huta, where our lovely CouchSurfing hosts lived. This was my first experience of CouchSurfing and it was a great introduction! Dominika and her boyfriend were 23 year old engineering students who had been together since they were 16. After giving us a while to settle in and have a shower (we were pretty disgusting after pulling a nuit blanche), we sat down to a traditional Polish meal of pork, potatoes, pickle and vegetables. Dominika had also kindly made Piszinger (pronounced pishinger)- a traditional dessert from Krakow made up of wafer and chocolate. Trop bien!

I should also mention the couple also had a cat- Roman, quite possibly the most mental/ fluffy cat I have ever encountered. He made for great entertainment, chasing bits of foil round the room and running after a red laser Dominika's boyfriend was shining all over the living room.

.

Roman, I still miss him.

Instead of exploring Krakow that evening, we stayed in Nowa Huta getting to know our hosts who were seriously cool. They both spoke perfect English, spent an Erasmus year in Spain in 2009/10 and told us lots about Poland, Krakow and Nowa Huta- things we would never have known about had we stayed in a hostel. CouchSurfing really is a brilliant idea.

Nowa Huta

"Come visit historic Nowa Huta, where George Orwell's dark vision of a perfect industrial metropolis was executed with stunning precision. Until, that is, the workers rose up and overthrew Big Brother" - Brian Whitmore.

The couple's flat was situated in Nowa Huta, often classed as a separate city to Krakow as it is so large- home to around 200,000 people. We discovered that after 1945, when Poland became Communist, Nova Huta- a 'satellite industrial town' was created to correct the 'class imbalance', i.e. to attract people from lower class backgrounds to move closer to the city. We learned that Nowa Huta is full of old people who moved in after 1945 (there had only been one previous owner of the couple's flat) and that underneath the community's main square is an air raid shelter big enough for 3000 people. Why? The Communists were preparing for WW3.

Ironically today Nowa Huta is fiercely anti-Communist. The statues of Lenin and streets named after Stalin have long gone, but the buildings remain. History is still alive. It was a privilege to stay in an area where there were no tourists and no signs in English. The trip had got off to a very good start...

Krakow

Let me say that despite the freezing temperatures (it was around minus 7 every day), Krakow was lovely. Smaller than I imagined, most of the main sights can be seen in a day. We started off doing a free walking tour of the city- looking at churches, monuments, hearing anecdotes from our tour guide. What we didn't know is that we accidentally crashed an Erasmus tour- awkward moment when someone asked me to take a photo of the group with my camera and post it 'on the Facebook group'. Oops. Most major European cities offer these walking tours and I cannot recommend them enough. We walked round the main square and up to Wawel hill, whereupon lies Wawel Castle, saw Krakow's famous flaming dragon statue down by the river and saw the Pope! Well not really, we saw an image of John Paul 2nd waving out of a window. We also saw Oscar Schlinder's factory (made famously in the film Schlinder's List) and wandered around Kazimierz- Krakow's Jewish quarter. Hardly saw a soul- went into a synagogue before wandering over to a bar...

Don't let the sun fool you, it was bloody freezing!

Naturally, when in Poland you have to 'profiter bien' from all the food and drink that is available at such cheap prices! Out of the 5 countries we visited, Poland was definitely the cheapest food-wise. We had read about 'bar mleczny'-milk bars that had been established during the Communist era, selling cheap food and milk. The government subsidised the milk bars to ensure that even poor workers could afford to eat out. This meant that everything was, and still is super cheap. Naturally we ended up visiting twice. As the menu is solely in Polish, you either have to point to something that's on show or choose a random name off the menu and take your chances. It definitely made eating so much more exciting/ worrying not knowing what we had ordered! Anyway, I had a 2 course meal of soup and meat/potatoes/vegetables for around 2 euros. The milk bars may not be the most cheerful of places, but they're certainly cheap.

An Obwarzanki seller.

Another local delicacy which went down very well was the Obwarzanki- bread rings that vendors sell on just about every street corner of Krakow. These bread rings come in various flavours- sesame seed, normal cheesy and cost 1 zloty 50- around 40 euro cents. The perfect breakfast. We also discovered a little bakery where we had a huge slab of cake and a coffee for just over 2 euros and a pierogi restaurant that served only pierogi. Pierogi are fried dumplings filled with various things- usually cheese, cheap meat, cabbage or a mixture of the three. I opted for the Ruskie- pierogi with cheese. Needless to say this was another cheap eat!

On the drinks front, it would have been rude to go to Poland and not try its vodka. During a jazz evening we went to with our CouchSurfing hosts we tried Bols vodka- pretty standard really. The day after we went to a bar and after I managed to spill my pint of beer all over myself (clumsy as), we tried some vodka shots. I had a lemon vodka shot which wasn't as nice as it sounds, as the rim of the glass was lined with garlic. Perhaps a cultural taste I just will never understand...

Auschwitz

One of the reasons why we went to Krakow was because all of us wanted to visit Auschwitz, probably the most notorious concentration camp where over one and a half million people, mainly Jews, were put to death between 1940 and 1945. Obviously this is not the kind of thing one can take lightly- we felt numb the entire time we were there. We had a guided tour, something I'm glad we did as we heard a lot of personal stories and learned a lot about the camp. After a tour of Auschwitz 1 where we saw torture chambers and the like, we took a shuttle bus to Auschwitz 2-Birkenau where we saw where the prisoners lived and later died. It was horrific. Looking back I'm amazed we all managed to survive the day without bursting into tears. It felt surreal whilst we were there though. Although I took a few photographs, somehow it doesn't feel right uploading them all onto the internet in the name of tourism. One definitely suffices.

If you ever get a chance to go then go. It's without a doubt one of the most important places you can ever visit.

That concludes the Krakow diaries. It's a great little city, I learned a lot and more importantly, I was very well fed. Next stop Budapest!

Tchin Tchin

I’ve got it bad. That feeling that time is slipping away and there’s nothing I can do about it. Vive la nostalgie! It’s hard not to think about ‘the end’ now- as one assistant drunkenly said to me the other evening ‘It’s too sooooon!’ Only 8 weeks or so to go until I will leave Nancy with only a crappy Dunlop suitcase and great memories from a great seven months.

Friday night was hilarious. I was invited out for drinks with two of the teachers-Nathalie and Valérie from school. I often help Nathalie out with her SEGPA students- students so academically poor they have separate classes from the other students. They’re a handful, it’s not an easy job teaching them I've got to say. After helping in one of her lessons on Thursday, Nathalie invited me out for drinks on Friday night. We met up in Opéra, a nice little bar just behind Place Stan. Spent a couple of hours speaking lots of French (not that easy in a loud bar when you keep having to say ‘Pardon? J’ai pas entendu'.) Love how open the French are about their relationship history- I learnt that Valérie, originally from the South moved to Nancy for a man who later broke up with her. Also learned that Nathalie spent two weeks in Manchester when she was my age and was basically a massive slag. Love it.The most hilarious moment was perhaps the advice they gave me ‘Il faut manger local’ meaning ‘You must find a French hottie’. When in France, and all.

While we're on the subject of 'manger' i.e. food (when am I off this subject?), I went for lunch again this week at Anne’s house- an English lady who’s been living in France and Belgium for the last fifty years or so. Had soup, salmon (as my closest friends will know is the key to my heart) and chocolate mousse. Once again Bouba, her chihuahua was sat on my lap for the entirety of the afternoon. It’s been so nice to swap living abroad stories with Anne- we often talk about the differences between the French and the British. Two of the main ones we found;

· The French don’t let many people get close. In England, I’m used to talking to little old ladies at the bus stop about the weather or the news or some other topic that binds us together for a few minutes. Then we’re off. In France you don’t talk to anyone. You stay silent, don’t make eye contact with anyone and when the bus arrives it’s a free-for-all. Takes a while to get used to.

· The French are very reluctant to invite you into their homes. I get on well with lots of the teachers at school, but am yet to visit any of their homes, even my responsable who lives a mere 3 minute walk away from chez moi. It’s strange. Luckily I have a big group of assistant friends and French students to keep me occupied, but it would have been nice at the start to have been invited for a meal or an aperitif at someone’s house. It’s not easy, packing your life up and moving to a town in foreign country where you don’t know anyone. My first week here just felt surreal- nowhere near as tough as I was expecting but I just felt like I was living in a bubble, that everything I did was just a dream. I still feel like that sometimes- I have plenty of ‘Oh my god I can’t believe I live in France’ moments. When you are invited into someone’s home for a meal, like I have been with Anne it's great. The French spend hours eating a meal, discussing, debating- there’s always an aperitif and a cheese course between the plat principal and dessert. This is my kind of life! I just wish I saw it more often!

A week from now I will be in Krakow, Poland, knackered after having spent the night camping out in Charles de Gaulle airport. Niiiice! I can’t wait to explore a part of Europe whose language I cannot speak for once. Can’t wait to buy local food using different currency and, of course, Auschwitz. It'll be awful, but what else would it be? Moving on to Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Prague- it'll be knackering, but I’m sure we’ll have the time of our lives. Protitez-ing bien we are spending next Saturday in Paris, starting with the tourist trap that is the Café des 2 Moulins, Amélie style...

As Humphrey Bogart says in Casablanca, "We'll always have Paris". Mais oui.

Here's to the next 2 months.

Cheers!