Diary Travelogues | Eastern Europe | 1994 | September 01 to 04 | Part 2 – Poland

Hi Friends,

This is the second part of my 1994 travels through Eastern Europe: Poland - Belarus - Russia - Estonia - Latvia - Lithuania - Poland.

If you are just coming on board, below is a link to the first part in this series:
Eastern Europe | 1994 | August 28 to August 31 | Part 1 – Poland

If you'd like to switch to a different series of travel writings:
The Levant | 1996 | May 05 to May 08 | Part 1 – Egypt

If you have been following along from the beginning, welcome back 🔆

Thanks for reading
🚣

^{An overview of my travels between 28 August - 27 September, 1994. The red line is my route.}

Thursday, 1 September 1994 | time ?? | Gdańsk (Poland)

Excerpt from a letter I wrote to family: “I tell you I was relieved to leave W. Europe behind, with its shiny autobahns and multiple petty considerations. The Polish people I've met have been friendly and hitching is easy and laid-back here. Lots of Poles hitch and I even saw a well-dressed lady with a handbag get into a lorry. I've begun to feel more comfortable in Poland, overcoming prejudices and Western propaganda opinion, but I wonder what Russian will be like. I've been warned and dissuaded often enough to be careful, but I'm not backing out. I feel I need a change and to back out because of 'potential danger' - something I hardly considered in the Middle-East¹, would be to betray myself somehow.”

Anyhow, my Russian visa cost me $30 USD and will take 7 days to come through. Express visa would cost $60 and take 2 days! What's most annoying is that I needed to go to an agent for a voucher – a hotel reservation in Russia, usually involving paying for the room! I managed to get one from 9th - 15th September, saying that I'd pay on arrival and they charged me 450,000 złoty. But the stupid Russian system demands that my visa be no more than the span on the voucher. So I have to wait a week and pay a total of $45 USD for a week's permission to be knifed! The agent told me that procedure for a Ukranian visa was the same - I just couldn't be bothered and it would've had to wait until the next day anyway. The Russian embassy told me that once in Moscow, I could get an extension to my Russian visa and obtain a Ukranian visa.

The Ticket Controllers in Warsaw! Yesterday I got a tram to the station with the two Italians from the hostel. They had backpacks with them, and presently two controllers got on. We had cancelled² one ticket each. The controllers said that the tickets didn't match and that anyway, they needed to have one for their baggage as well. The controllers seeing me without baggage, declared one of the tickets to be valid and 'allowed' me away. However, the Italians and I protested – the controllers had wanted 4 x 250,000 złoty fines – and threatened to call their embassy. I accompanied them as far as the police station, convinced that it was a ruse to get money. I know not what became of them – I had to go for my Russian visa and don't know if they thought I had squirmed out. Thing is, this morning when I was on the tram in Warsaw, I saw someone whom I thought might have been the controller from yesterday! I was looking at a map, obviously a tourist. I had also got off at a stop and then back on the tram after consulting the map. It was there that he and another got on. They asked the person to my left for his ticket and then me for mine. I gave him the tickets and he compared the two (I had decided not to risk it and had one for my luggage), returned them and they then got off, clearly disappointed not to have made another killing. Their game was so obvious! Can't totally blame them for taking advantage, but it is a stupid system where you have to pay for luggage and stupider still that they expect tourists to understand and buy an extra ticket for luggage. This at least is never demanded in the West. Anyhow!

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Ok finito, that was yesterday! I managed to hitch up to Gdańsk on the Baltic sea, 350 km away. I enjoy hitching through rural Poland. A woman gave me a lift for the final 160 km and I found a cheap youth hostel. It was full of English-speaking girls, the kind who go inter-railing around Europe for a month and come across as group stereotypes. One of them was friendlier than the rest, although I didn't much like her companion who seemed suspicious and rather narrow-minded. She was studying Russian and wrote out the Cyrillic alphabet for me, explaining it phonetically. This is so that I will be able to use a Russian-English dictionary when I am there.

<sub>1. I had travelled through Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey in 1992, when I was 20.
2. Tickets have to be 'cancelled', or stamped, in order to be valid.</sub>

Friday, 2 September 1994 | 22.15 | Gdańsk (Poland)

More games with controllers on the way back from the 'Hel' peninsula! I got the express train from Gdynia to Gdańsk (21 km). I hadn't stamped my ticket on the way there this morning so I used it – stamped – on the way back. 3 controllers caught on that I was foreign and suggested my ticket was invalid because this was an express and I needed a different ticket. At first I wasn't sure how genuine they actually were – I did have an 'ordinary' ticket after all! I tried reasoning with them, even when they tore up my ticket and threw it on the floor. When I saw the ridiculous sums – 1.5 million złoty (100 DM), I reckoned it was another con, so when we got into Gdańsk and they threatened me with the Police, I picked up the torn pieces (a smart thing to do) and walked along with them, not knowing what was to happen, but fairly determined to argue vehemently and to not pay any more than the difference (if any). We got to the underground, walking in silence. I even contemplated giving them the slip but wisely didn't, for they decided to give up and waved me away. Again, there wasn't any malice, just free-enterprising, a Western characteristic of ripping people off. They can't be 100% blamed for giving tourists a taste of their own medicine; pity they can't target the richer ones, although those kinds get ripped off anyway in expensive hotels and restaurants where they pay money to be treated like God! Like the Sheraton¹, that crap-hole with its pretentious customers.

Anyhow, this morning I got the train from Gdańsk to Władysławowo, 55 km. I then started walking up the Hel peninsula with the Baltic sea on one side, and the calmer Gulf of Gdańsk on the other. It is a surprisingly long 45 km stretch and at times only 500-1000 metres wide. I walked along the beach for a few kilometres. The beach runs all the way on the North side (Baltic sea) and the rest is covered in forest, 5 or 6 towns on the way with just one road and the railway running through.

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I got a lift to Hel, the far end of the peninsula and sat on the pier with a joint and Crime & Punishment. It was a pleasant day (overcast) spent by myself. On the way back I hitched as far as Gdynia, where I stopped for a beer and a bite before getting the train, and the resulting controller drama.

The Polish girls I've seen are by far the most beautiful yet. Beautiful as opposed to 'sexy' (like Spanish girls). Apart from extremely good looks, they are very friendly. I've also noticed that they take a lot of trouble over their personal appearance. It really is a pleasure to have dealings with them – so willing to help and offer smiles.

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I'm going back up to the Baltic coast tomorrow, to Łeba and then perhaps to the Lake District for a couple of days before Warsaw and Russa. I've enough ganja to last me 4-5 days, after which I think it wiser not to carry any around. Too easy to end up in a Russian jail for the rest of my life, and I don't fancy that now do I?
_{1. The Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh, where I had worked for 6 months in 1992-3.}

Saturday, 3 September 1994 | 19.00 | Olsztyn (Poland)

Woke up at 9am in the youth hostel, room 41, which apart from myself was full of girls. My neighbour was a pretty French girl from Nice. Miserable day – I abandoned my plan of going North, choosing instead to either to visit Frombork (Copernicus) if a lift and train times made it handy, or to go to Olsztyn and spend an extra day in the Lake District. My first lift was at 12.30 and I was in Olsztyn by 4.30pm (180 km).

I had left Gdańsk so late because I decided to take a walk in the drizzle through the old town, which I hadn't as yet seen. I sat down for a coffee in one of the cobbled main streets with narrow old houses, and I got talking to a man from Malbork who was, like myself, sitting outside under the rain-shelter. He told me about the knights of the Teutonic Order who settled there in the 13th Century. He went across the street to a postcard and souvenir stall. I thought he was going to buy me a postcard, but he came back with an English guide to the Teutonic Order which he modestly presented me with. It was a very generous gesture which went appreciated. I sat with him for an hour or so before heading off.

I got into Olsztyn but could just as easily have continued into the heart of the Lake District if I had wanted to, as the van was going there. But I got off! It would be nice to take the train – should be beautiful – but there are none runing until 20.50, which would get in too late (23.20). So I'm getting the train at 8.51 tomorrow morning!

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Walked around the old town a bit – quiet and pleasant enough as is the youth hosted – I don't think there are more than 4 or 5 people staying. Polish girls are direct – they look straight at you!

Another lesson in the iniquities of free enterprise! I needed to change 50 DM. On the way to the station someone approached me offering 17,000 złoty for 1 DM; elsewhere is 14,500 at best! Now to me he was obviously suspect (remember three years ago in Prague with Nick, when our bundles were switched?!). At first I suspected forgeries, but he went to a stall and had them verified by a woman (I dismissed the thought that they might be collaborators). He then counted out 900,000 złoty – I was was half watching out for it when, from the corner of my eye, I noticed the switch. I told him I wanted to count it (in any case it felt too thick – he had wanted me to change 100 DM and had perhaps prepared for that). Anyhow, he got agitated and walked off. 250 metres further along, another gold-digger approached me with an equally tempting and unrealistic offer of 18,000. We were in the open and I didn't feel threatened by him. Also I was curious to see. I made sure I counted out 9 good 100,000 notes. Then I saw. rather was aware of his having done something, perhaps a motion or a jerk of his head which made me look at him – his eyes – and I was also half aware of a faint hand movement. When I looked down there was a subtle difference. In retrospect, I had also noticed the way he counted out the money – positioning the notes carefully. I patted his hand and walked away, leaving him disappointed not to have won. For me it's also a game, I can only lose if not careful. Again, can't blame him – no malice and he was almost sulking afterwards! And it's experience for me!

I was just thinking that having free time is what a holiday is all about. Not rushing off trying to see all the same old sights and 15 countries in 30 days! It's good to have time and money (here). Money because it means I have time to go where and where I like.

Sunday, 4 September 1994 | 16.30 | Giżycko (Poland)

It is very nice here in the Lake District. Last night there were only two of us in the youth hostel, today I'm the only one! It is a fair sized motel in which I have an excellent room with 2 beds, sofa, sheets and even a radio. I'm overlooking a corner of the lake where none of the campers are likely to visit. All for 100,000 złoty!

I've also hired a bike – more expensive than the room. It has been very pleasant in spite of the absence of gears (not a great problem) and my aching knee caused by the low seat (may become a problem). I am at the end of a rough track that I free-wheeled down, and am now sitting on a log that is jutting out onto the lake, which I think is the largest in Poland.

I had wanted to do a lot more cycling but that's not going to happen with this bike. And the prices – the only place I found was a 3-star hotel wanting 200,000 złoty for a day! I got it for 2 hours (50,000 złoty), but the girl said that 3 hours would be fine. So what now? I might hitch down to another place tomorrow, might even get hold of a map of the region!

Yes it is nice here! I left my coat behind and stuck Crime & Punishment in my jeans. The sun is shining down, warm and brightly reflected off the water. There's a small sailing boat moored 100 metres out, and another I can see bobbing up and down through the reeds. I like the reeds and I have them on three sides around me. Whatever I can see of the shore is covered in trees and from the train I had noticed plenty of forested areas.

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Last night I was wondering whether descriptions such as these weren't in a sense, a betrayal of the diary principle, i.e. as if for someone else's benefit. Memory ought perhaps to be evoked by hints and personal recollections. Perhaps not totally! I do feel it to be pleasant here and it's no great effort to describe a bit of it. Thing is to describe what I see and feel, and not just what I can find flowery words for – so many clichés in English!

Right, back to the quiet town to redeem my passport in exchange for nasty-knee-bicycle!

...a little later

I've returned the bike – I had it for three and a half hours! Cycling back was fun. I had a vague sense of direction and followed it, also vaguely, letting my fancy turn the handles – to use a variation of yet another cliche and in doing so get another and another. But communication must be effected somehow! I turned onto a path that ran alongside a red brick and stone wall which appeared fairly aged (50-100 years?), and apparently not to have any purpose apart from keeping the hillside from crumbling. At times it renounced its function as a wall that supported the hillside and I even found a tunnel running through it.

At this point I descended into the undergrowth that ran I guess, for 1 or 1.5 km. I cycled along for a while till it got too thick. I then scrambled up a little path and found myself on a ridge about the hight of the wall, with my valley of shrubs between us! I spotted a bit that had perhaps been blasted out and formed a kind of cave. This opened up into a large courtyard of sorts with a fence around it, suggesting some kind of attraction¹. The girl to whom I returned the bike couldn't figure out what I was wanting to know – nice but slow! Anyway, I enjoyed it. So many lakes around here and so much greenery!

I'm having a beer and sitting by the canal, 150 metres from where it joins the lake. Crime & Punishment is very very well written! When I went to buy my beer I caused a group of young people and the bartender to laugh – no malice, perhaps my attempt at Polish. I'm going in for another!
_{1. Thinking about it now, it was probably a remnant of WWII and not a tourist attraction at all lol – most likely a safety fence to keep folk out!}

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If you would like to carry on reading click here for Part 3

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