Warsaw, Poland

I decided to take the “express” train from Krakow to Warsaw, Poland’s capital. This train took 3 hours, versus 5 hours for the regular train. The train ticket cost 97 Zloty, almost double the 50 Zloty for the regular train. The first thing I noticed about this train was how “new” the train cars were. The last time I was in a non-decrepit train was in Greece. The scenery along the way was gorgeous, with lush fields and rolling hills. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how your opinion), this verdant landscape is due to copious amounts of rainfall.

Warsaw is famous for its restored old town with castle. The city suffered massive destruction during WWII and hence all the restoration. Old Town Square, with its multicolored buildings with designs, was the most impressive area.

My highlight, though, had to be visiting two festivals, the Jewish Festival and the Multicultural Festival. Cser Joanna brought me to both of them, and I felt like a local for once. At the Jewish Festival, we listened to live Klemzer music, ate palmiers and challah. The festival was located in the Jewish quarter, a run-down neighborhood of 19th century brown buildings with courtyards. The Multicultural Festival, on the other hand, was located in the Bohemian quarter of Praga. There, we watched a Samba parade and listened to Balkan music. Several countries/regions has booths displaying food, arts and performances. One of my favorite displays was the Vietnamese music puppet show.

My last European overnight trip was a bus from Warsaw to Vilnius, Lithuania. The bus was very comfortable, with a bathroom on board. The bus even arrived 30 minutes early!

Krakow, Poland

It seems we somehow carried the rain from Ukraine into Poland as it was damp when the bus arrived at Krakow. This city was the former royal capital of Poland and is its most beautiful city architecturally.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Poland is the use of the Latin alphabet! More conspicuous around the city are its Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture as this area was ruled by the Polish and Austrian-Hungarian empires. There were so many churches that it was hard to keep track (and so many weddings on the particular Saturday I was there). My favorite was St Severus Church, with its fountain of mineral-rich water and sculptures of bishops in its surrounding park. Moreover, many of the buildings are named “John Paul II”, after the pope who used to live in the Krakow area.

My favorite building though, has to be the Collegium Maius, founded in 1400 as part of Jagiellonska University, Central Europe’s second oldest. The Gothic courtyard with its old library was especially aesthetically pleasing.

Krakow also contains Wawel hill, the seat of royal power, overlooking Krakow. On top of the hill are Wawel Cathedral and Castle. The cathedral has a distinct architecture, composed of red bricks, gray stones, green spires and a golden dome. The castle has a three-storey Renaissance courtyard with some frescoes remaining.

And perhaps not surprisingly, Krakow has a Jewish quarter, Kazimierz. The city is also near two concentration campus, Auschwitz and Birkenau (which I did not have time to visit but will go next time). Kazimierz, similar to the Jewish quarter in Prague, has its fair share of synagogues and a cemetery. It is now a tourist neighborhood filled with restaurants, bars and cafes.

Lviv, Ukraine

Tired of overnight trains or buses, I decided to spend an entire day (10 hours) traveling by train from Kiev to Lviv, a city in western Ukraine. The ride was enjoyable as the platzkarnty was not full and I got space to lie down. I spent the time gazing out the window at the lush, flat Ukrainian plains and brown-roofed village homes and observing the scores of sellers parading their goods down the aisle. I also read quite a bit on Central America, my next big destination.

A side note is that the ticket-buying process at train stations is quite intriguing. First of all, one lines up (and boy the lines are always long!). However, one needs to navigate to the correct window (domestic, international and others) of which are signed only in Cyrillic. Each window has different operating hours with 1-hour lunch breaks and several 10-minute “technology” breaks, meaning that one could wait quite a while to buy a train ticket.

Lviv is a city that has both Polish and Austrian-Hungarian influences in its culture and architecture.

Similar to Brasov, I did not expect to see such “Western” architecture there. Many of these buildings were run down, which gave the city an authentic feel. I enjoyed wandering down the cobbled-stone streets and admiring Gothic, Baroque and Neoclassical churches and buildings. One favorite building of mine is the 13th century Armenian Church, which is quite different from the rest inside. There were few tourists there, which made the trip even more real. Moreover, similar to other Eastern European cities I have visited, I appreciated the many trees and parks in the city.

The only negative aspect of my stay in Lviv and in Ukraine was the weather. It rained during the 3 days I was in the Ukraine. Each day, it rained throughout the day and the sky was overcast. I didn’t expect the weather to change so quickly for the worse once September began. I also observed plenty of yellow leaves. I can imagine how gloomy, cold and miserable winters in the Ukraine can be!

Once again, I decided to take an overnight train, this time from Lviv to Krakow, Poland. Looking at the map, I thought the trip could be completed in 4 hours, but was told 10 hours. I soon realized why as we were stuck at the two borders for 5 hours and 40 minutes, a record for me! (This even beats the 3-hour plus delay I experienced in Skopje, Macedonia.)

At the Ukrainian side of the border, the immigration officer tried to find something wrong with my passport by saying that my additional visa pages in the middle of the passport looked suspicious. (I guess they wanted to find something wrong with someone and since everyone else on the bus was either Ukrainian or Russian, I was the obvious target.) However, I held my ground and told him it was officially placed there by U.S. immigration authorities. After a few more minutes of trip detail interrogation, he stamped my passport and let me go.

On the Polish side, we waited even longer. This was because the immigration officers had to scrutinize the visas and invitations of the Ukrainians and Russians. I wonder how it is the other way around, let’s say, if a Westerner entered Russia. After the lengthy immigration process, everyone had to leave the bus with all of his or her luggage. The bus was searched and our bags were inspected. I wonder if this is something that occurs on the border between Schengen and non-Schengen countries. Thus, even with the extra bus journey time buffered in for the border crossing, the bus arrived at Krakow almost 2 hours late!

One last comment is that I am starting to realize the benefits of the EU for travelers. Besides the common currency that saves both time and money, lack of border controls saves a lot of time. As a frequent traveler, I cannot wait till the entire continent is in the EU and when the entire world is visa-free (my lifelong wish!).