But before I leave the subject behind, lets pay a visit to one of my favourite Polish cities, the somewhat overlooked Lublin in Poland's southeast.
As I wrote in Lonely Planet's Eastern Europe book, Lublin would make a nice substitute for the wildly popular Kraków when the latter city's tourist crowds are too much to cope with.
Like Kraków, Lublin has a beautiful Old Town, an impressive castle, and good drinking and dining; but it's not overwhelmed with visitors and the pace is slower.
So here's a snapshot of Lublin, created by gathering together all my postings to Twitter during my stay in the city (with a glimpse of a day trip to nearby Zamość)...
- Bloody hell! What looms above the skylight of my hotel room here in Lublin, Poland? And has it been fed? 2:43 PM Jun 21st
- Ah, the trolleybus... combines all the disadvantages of both bus and tram travel in a single ungainly vehicle. 5:36 PM Jun 21st
- With the A$ so strong, I should be saving cash... but here I am at the Grand Hotel Lublinianka (and it's only costing me $90 a night!). 5:53 PM Jun 21st
- Well that's a record - the iPhone's battery almost drained by 10:45am. Apple should be ashamed of its non-removable battery's poor life. 6:42 PM Jun 21st
- Just located Lublin's first modern backpacker hostel... nice. Always satisfying to add something good and new to the LP book. 8:33 PM Jun 21st
- In the basement of my hotel, the Lublinianka, is a classy sauna; but not in the Lubyanka, the KGB's ex-HQ. Important not to mix them up. 4:58 AM Jun 22nd
- The colour-coded Renaissance facades of Zamość; founded the same time as Shakespeare was writing his stuff. 7:12 PM Jun 22nd
- You know, you can have too much runny scrambled egg in your life. Hotel breakfasts more impressive in theory than reality, aren't they? 3:11 PM Jun 23rd
- Behold the Fiat Polski, the standard car of Poland's communist era. It's about the size of a matchbox. 4:20 PM Jun 23rd
- On the road (or rails) again... off to Przemyśl next. Nice day for it! 5:14 PM Jun 23rd
Funny thing is, if you drove a Fiat Polski in Melbourne you'd be the coolest cat on the block, right?
ReplyDeleteHey, it's really nice that you have written something about Lublin. I study here and I agree that public transport in Lbl is awful ;(. Do you know that the car you've presented is the only car that was blessed by the pope because there is no possibility to shag on the back seat ;-)
ReplyDeleteGood luck and have a nice journey in my beautiful country ;-)
Ant: At the very least, a Fiat Polski in Melbourne would excite considerable comment. And people would endlessly mention how easy it must be to park.
ReplyDeleteVinka: I don't know if the transport there is awful, but they really need to get some cash together and replace those trolleybuses with trams. And the Lublin bus station is the ugliest in Poland. However, I love the city!
Tim, things are not easy and obvious, especially if you live in eastern part of my country, usually referred as " Poland B". I don't know but I guess that the authority believe in EU and..their money.
ReplyDeleteWell,not only is Lublin's bus station ugly but also it's very dangerous so I'm happy you're safe&sound because you might've lost sth more than money. It's sad that i'm writing it about my own country, but, believe me, there are worse bus stations ( it's even hard to imagine!)
Vinka, it is very possible to have sex in a Maluch! I'd show you how if I didn't have a girlfriend. Tim, you're spot on about Lublin: the city is superb!
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