Warsaw, Krakow & Wroclaw

GRISWOLDS TOUR OF POLAND

1st stop - WARSAW
We flew from Split to Vienna and then to Warsaw – this leg of the journey was in a tiny little 20-seater. For those that don’t know, Joey is not a great flier! When we arrived we thought that he was still white and acting a bit vague from the plane trip however I think it was the fact he was in his home country again! He explained later that he felt a mixture of excitement, apprehension and anticipation. We all saw the sign with ‘Findling’ and felt quite ‘special’ but Joey missed it completely.

We headed into the city and found our wonderful apartment. Great location – right in the old town almost overlooking the main square. Then we headed to the closest traditional restaurant and ordered heaps of perogi, borsh and bigos!!!

Warsaw is an incredible city – all completely rebuilt after WW2. Great coloured buildings with different and unique facades. Over the next week we realised that Poland has some of the prettiest cities in Europe - amazing country!

We only spent 2 nights in Warsaw – could have easily spent longer. We roamed around the town, visited the castle and eat heaps of perogi!! It was very emotional, especially when you see a sign in honour of the innocent people who were simply walking down the street when they were lined up and killed in cold blood. So much history, so much tragedy but still so much pride!

The next morning the Griswold Family Vacation Van was delivered. We all hopped in ready for our tour of Poland. After the family photo……….with Joe in this tour guide hat and us with our name tags and matching red shoes, we attempted to start touring….however …….no petrol!! After the guys came back with a gerry can we headed off……..not far though……..as we somehow ended up doing circles around Warsaw for over an hour. Picture this ………..Joey driving…… Val navigating…..Val asking Joe to pull over and resigning from her navigating position…..Jason stepping in………..Joey asking us to read the signs in Polish not English (????)…..…and we had not even left Warsaw!! Eventually we found the way and turned on the radio…amusingly ‘The Land Down Under’ came on the radio…spooky!! However it wasn’t long before we got lost again or held up with road works! Tbone was correct with his tourism advice, the road from Warsaw to Krakow was the worst road in Europe – massive pot holes and apparently no speed limit or brakes!! Poor TC stayed in the very back with her eyes closed the whole way!

2nd stop - KRAKOW

We arrived to our modest hotel (Hotel Daisy) as dusk hit. By this stage Joe was relaxed and enjoying touring around Poland and we were glad to get out of the van. It was incredible to hear the stories about Joe and Val’s visit in the 90’s just after communism fell. Val recalls young people begging her to give them information about the western world and how they can get to Australia. It was good for them to see just how much progress Poland has made since then and with joining the European Union. Apparently, in the early 90’s there was almost nothing on the shop shelves, now there are massive department stores with all the latest brands, even a diesel factory outlet!!

We found a little student type perogi house, thanks to TC taking us out of the tourist zone and down a few dark back allies. It was cheap as chips and mega tasty, just no alcohol! After filling up on perogi we went searching for a pub with the champions league on. The only pub in sight was a little Irish pub. Jas, Dazza and Joe managed to skull 6-8 pints and ended up singing traditional Irish folk songs with about 20 Irish golfers!! Very amusing!



WROCLAW
Off to Joey’s home town….

It started off on a very emotional tour through the Auschwitz concentration camp - words cannot describe it so I won't even try - just see it. Then after a couple of silent hours in the car we arrived in Wroclaw - pronounced Vratswah even though between TC and Jas they managed to never pronounce it right once.

We stayed at the 5 star Raddison to celebrate the big fellas 60th birthday - having the fam (minus Waz the superworker) in his own hometown was pretty special for Joey and a few waterworks were seen in the week. One of those 'Once in a Lifetime moments' that will stay with us forever....... and the same could be said for staying in a 5 star hotel! Flashpacking at its best!! We again ate like kings..... fat kings by this stage as the food was simply sensational! Nana Mary would have been smiling down at us as we demolished pierogi by the truckload - traditional Polish food is hard to beat!

On our travels around town we visited Joeys house and the school he attended as a kid. The boy surprised us all by busting out some pretty darn good conversational Polska and helped us get by as some 'locals'...... sort of! For his birthday dinner we started on a bottle of Moet, got them a horse drawn carriage around the town square and finished it off with a dinner at the St. Petersburg restaurant which was fine dining at its best. About 6 vodka shots each later and we could almost speak perfect Polish as well! Who woulda thought!!! So there you have it - a tour that had it all....... blood, sweat and definetly tears! It definetly rates as one of the best times we have had on the No Rulz Trip and we learnt a lot about our heritage and where they lived. Big thanks must go out to Joe and Val for making it such a great few weeks and for looking after us so well. Also to Waz who made the trek over to Europa and who we got to know a lot better....... but the biggest thanks goes to little Waz who had to keep the family business running back at home - tough ask and did it hard but you were there in spirit and I swore we almost saw you after 1 too many voddies!



TOOL OF THE WEEK
It has to go to the Griswolds again! Just for being the Griswolds - lunatic drivers, passionate arguers, borderline alcoholics......... as Bill Lawry would say "It was all happening!"

Primosten

Primosten 16/9 - 23/9/06

After a 12 nights with just the 2 of us in wonderful, tranquil and peaceful island hideaways, it was off to Split to meet the Findling Family for the start of the Griswold’s Family Vacation……….

It was quite emotional when we got off the ferry and saw Jason and Val after 6 months away (Val was ready with tissues in hand!). Unfortunately Joey missed the whole event as he started to run when he saw a ferry arrive, however little did he know that it was not our ferry. Finally Joey joined the gang and we all had a beer to celebrate. Then just as the rain started to teem down we hailed a cab and off we went to our apartment in Primosten – a little town recommended by Troy and Jean about 1.5 hours south of Split.

After one of the most terrifying journeys of our lives we arrived at our apartment to find our hosts, an 80-year-old Croatian couple. They couldn’t speak English, we couldn’t speak Croatian, so lucky we had Joey who spoke Polish and she managed to understand the occasional word here and there. We spend the next 7 days and nights swimming, snorkelling, sun baking, eating fresh fish, seafood risotto, drinking local wine (literally local wine form the corner house served in plastic bottles – very posh!!) and generally having a great relaxing time with the family.

Moments

• Our first meal together in a little Croatian restaurant in the old town. It was great to catch up, eat great Croatian food and drink excellent wine with the Findlings (alias Griswells).
• Free shots of local grappa following each meal (Val loved them!!)
• Jas, Dazza and TC swimming to an island (about 1km away!). Amazing – heaps of fish!
• Cooking a BBQ dinner with the old Croatian couple looking over our shoulders. It look over 3 hrs to get the fire started !!
• Visiting Sibenik. Great cathedral with faces representing different people and emotions. Humbling to see evidence of recent brutal war.
• Meeting Ivan at the Beach Bar. He told us all the stories about how he and his family managed throughout the war. After we had a few too many Long Island Ice Teas (I am sure we only paid for one) he left us to close the bar! We ended up going for a midnight swim in the Adriatic!!
• Cruise to Krka National Park. Great grilled fish lunch with wine on the boat and a beautiful walk around the waterfalls. Very rough trip home with a few tourists not quite making it – I can still see the grey liquid!
• The little old Croatian lady going sick at Trace for not having any shoes on!! Not once, not twice but 5 times!! Good one Trace!

ZAGREB….ZAGREB……we are going to ZAGREB
We left Primosten early to head back to Split to catch a train to Zagreb. After a long ‘travel day’ we checked into our hotel and headed into the city for a feed. Great city, more traditional Croatian food but the highlight was the massive ice-cream shops – WOW!!

TOOL OF THE WEEK
The tool this week has to go the Griswolds for keeping the neighbours up with our ‘passionate discussions’ over dinner. The poor 80-year-old lady had to ask us to quieten down in her dressing gown at about 11pm at night.