Once again it's been a while since my last blog post. I've been working 50 hours a week at the pub since I got back from Poland because Jim has gone home for the month to South Africa.

After I got back from Scandinavia I had the urge to travel some more so I booked a trip to Poland to hang out with the Polish girl Agnieszka I had met in Copenhagen. I left for my trip on Tuesday night. I had to take a bus from Plymouth to Bristol airport. The bus left at 11:30 p.m. and didn't get to the airport until 3:00 a.m. Once at the airport I had to wait in the departures area until I could check in at 4:30.

The flight was a s*** flight. It was the first plane I had ever been on that didn't have reclining seats. After two hours I landed, went through customs and grabbed my bags. One thing I've noticed is the more you fly the more you hate it. For me flying has lost it's mystique from my first flight I went on going to Florida and now it's just a nuisance I have to go through to get from one place to the other.

When I landed Agnieszka was waiting for me at the airport. It was really good to see her. We had a great time in Copenhagen so I was looking forward to the week ahead. We drove about 40 minutes to get to where Agnieszka lived in a town outside of Krakow called Chrzanow.

Chrzanow is a nice little town of about 40,000. At first the town looked a bit rough. Most of the lawns and gardens were overgrown and the buildings looked very run down. The apartment complexes all looked very typical of the soviet architecture of their day, including a big parade square in the middle of the town that included a large soviet WW II statue as it's focal point.

I'm glad that I wasn't just passing by Chrzanow because as I spent the week in and around the town I was able to see just how nice it is. The downtown area is typically european. Right next to the communist square is the nice newly renovated town square including an outside bar set up for the Euro 2008 Championships. Along with the square it had the usual pedestrian streets lined with coffee shops and bistro's.

After I dropped my bag off at Agnieszka's apartment we went to grab some groceries. I had planned on making some bbq chicken and vegetables. It felt like we were back in the 50's. We had to go to the butcher, the market and the baker. I like to shop like that a lot more then just going to a supermarket.

After dropping the groceries off we grabbed some lunch and then relaxed the rest of the day. At night we went to the bar in the square to watch the Euro match. I was the only one cheering for Germany, but I guess you can understand why the Polish wouldn't be cheering for Germany.

The next day was a pretty laid back day, all we did was go to Krakow and wander around a little. We pretty much walked the whole city. We started out in the main square and made our way to the castle. The castle was architecturally very interesting. The castle was made when the Polish King was still single. He then married an Italian woman who built her own house within the walls. The castle as a whole looks quite strange. It looks like a mix and match of grey outer walls, with red brick buildings on the inside, and in the middle a tuscan villa that looks like it was ripped out of Italy and dropped in the middle of the courtyard.

After the castle we decided to take a little boat cruise along the Pilica river. It was a 30 minute cruise down the river and back that offered great views of the castle. After the cruise we walked around the the jewish quarter of Krakow before finding a really good Cuban bar. We relaxed in the lounge and enjoyed a few rum and cokes. Which brings me to another subject, the whole of Poland doesn't have a drop of spiced rum. I was quite surprised that in a Cuban bar I couldn't find any spiced rum. But I guess in a land where vodka is king there isn't enough room for my spiced rum.

Before we left Krakow I went to a supermarket to try and find some bbq sauce to put on the chicken. I couldn't find any sauce at all. Although they did have one aisle devoted to ketchup and mayonnaise. So because I couldn't find any bbq sauce I decided to grab stuff to make fajitas instead.

The next day we decided to go to Auschwitz. It wasn't very far from Chrzanow. The actual name of the city it is in is called Oswicim which is the Polish name for Auschwitz. The camp is very creepy. Auschwitz is actually two different camps. Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II. Auschwitz I is the camp that is most commonly shown in movies and television. It is the the camp with all the red brick buildings and the famous gate with the words above it "Arbeit Macht Frei" or in english "Work Sets You Free". Auschwitz I is also the camp at which the museum is located. In every building down the main street of the camp there are exhibitions. Every country who had a sizable portion it's citizens deported and held in the camps have an exhibit. Every exhibit tells the story of the people from their countries point of view. There were also many general exhibits including rooms full of various objects taken from the prisoners on arrival. When I say rooms full of objects I mean rooms the size of peoples houses. Some of the objects include shoes, wallets, even human hair. What made it all feel so surreal was the fact that the objects weren't props made to look authentic but were actual objects taken from real prisoners who for the most part all died in the gas chambers, shooting walls, or other various sick and twisted ways the Germans decided to kill a person with. Each exhibition hall also had mug shots of all the prisoners who died in the early years of the camp before they stopped taking photo's and sent them straight to the gas chamber.

After grabbing some quick lunch we went to Auschwitz II. Auschwitz II has the famous gate that the railway tracks run through seen in Schindlers List. This camp is for the most part destroyed. All the gas chambers were destroyed. One by the Germans in anticipation of the Soviet army, another by the Soviets and yet another by the prisoners themselves in a revolt on the camp guards. The only thing that is left is a few of the bunkhouses, the death gate, and a large monument in remembrance of the people who died there. The eerie thing about the whole day was the fact that the camps are surrounded by large tree's and it was a beautiful sunny day out yet not once did I hear any birds singing.

That night we went to a nice little bar called Marilyn's. At the bar we met up with Agnieszka's sister Sylwia and some of her friends. After having a few drinks we went to a club in Katowice. It was a really good club. Good surroundings good bar selection if you weren't looking for spiced rum and really good music. We all had a great night out.

The next day we went to the salt mines. The salt mines were pretty interesting. I'd never been in a mine before so it was good. The tour was in Polish so I didn't get too much information, but it was interesting none the less. There were a lot of underground lakes and displays of how they used to mine the salt when the mine first opened. There was even a cathedral in the mine dedicated to Pope John Paul II.

That night we went to a bbq of Agnieszka's best friend Anja. Because I couldn't find any rum I actually brought a bottle of Seagrams Whiskey. No one at the bbq spoke english well enough to have a conversation with me, but as the night went on I got to talking with Anja's boyfriend Martin. We cracked open the bottle of Seagrams had a pretty good conversation for two people who don't really speak each others language. The conversation got more amusing the more we drank and pretty soon I noticed that everyone was just watching me an Martin talking.

The next day Anja phoned Agnieszka the next day to find out how I was feeling and I was fine, apparently Martin had been up all night throwing up. The poor b****** was trying to keep up with me to make a good impression.

The next few days I just relaxed. Went to the lake, wandered around Chrzanow and hung out with Agnieszka. I'm going to see her again on August 4th. I'm going to fly to Krakow and Agnieszka and I are driving to Prague, then to Cesky Krumlov (where Hostel is filmed). After that not sure what's going to happen. There are rumours that I may move to Poland but going to take it one step at a time. See you next time.