Today we went skiing. Well, not really. First of all we hired snowboards (they had one in my size, yay!) for a fairly measly 40 Zł each for 24 hours (about ?10 or AU$20). We met a nice guy, Donny, last night and he told us to head to Bialka, a ski village with some really good beginner and easy intermediate runs. Unfortunately, we had to wait 45mins to find a bus that went there, and it was an old, dodgy looking 16-seater minibus and we were a little sceptical. Nonetheless we got on board and half an hour later, with the assistance of a Polish skier who walked us in the right direction, we found the runs. We were expecting a dodgy little town operation, but it was a very professional setup with about half a dozen chairlifts and some more t-bar lifts, and a cool magnetic ticketing system like a Oyster card where you just scanned in for each lift ride. We got an unlimited 9am-4pm pass for 65 Zł (around $32 each). The runs were magnificent, and the snow was amazing. When you go skiing in Victoria, the snow is really wet and icy, and you end up drenched. Here, however, it brushes right off you and we just wore jeans and our regular jackets and didn't get cold at all. I didn't even bother with a beanie and Keeley just wore her earwarmers, and we were fine. This was just as well, as I spent the majority of the first hour on my bum while I tried to learn to snowboard (something I've never done) by trial and error. Fortunately I worked out the theory fairly quickly and once I gained a little confidence I was enjoying myself a lot. I did feel bad for holding up Keeley, as she knew how to snowboard and had the added benefit of practising last night, but once I knew what I was doing (after lunch) we weren't that far apart in speed and she didn't have to wait longer than a couple of minutes for me at the bottom. I was lacking a lot of technique, and I struggled to turn on my toes, but for one day I'm pretty happy with myself. It was enjoyable and that's the most important thing. My legs are very sore though; not only am I lacking general fitness but holding the standing position for over a kilometre at a time was not easy.
We also tried some traditional Polish bread stuff, which was incredibly dense and very, very salty. Neither of us could stomach more than a mouthful, which was disappointing, but at least we tried it. Tonight we went out to the charismatic pub down the street with about a dozen guys from the hostel, which was really good fun. We also Skyped with our families, which was good and I think Mum particularly was relieved to hear our voices. Download free emoticons today! Holiday cheer from Messenger.
Breakfast at the Premium Hostel in Krakow was excellent, with cottage cheese and some packaged cream cheese things with various flavours (eg mushroom, capsicum, chives, etc). There was even a container of coco balls for Keeley. The other great thing about this hostel is the staff – they are very knowledgeable. The girl on reception knew the bus details off the top of her head on how to get to Zakopane (our next stop for skiing), including price, frequency and even the exact bay in the bus station it went from. This proved invaluable with our inability to read Polish timetables in the bus station.
The bus ride was about two and a half hours, and wound through some pretty picturesque scenery. There is snow everywhere, and it's beautiful. Zakopane is a smallish ski village, and our hostel is conveniently located about five or ten minutes walk from the bus station. We checked in, had lunch, went exploring, then really jumped into it and built a snowman (Mr Cool). This took a little time as the powdery snow didn't stick together well at first. We kept at it and the finished product looked pretty impressive we think. The snow is just amazing – you can kick it or throw it and it just 'puffs' rather than spraying like you would expect from the icy stuff at home. Best of all, it doesn't really make you wet; you can fall over in it or have some on your clothes but it doesn't really matter unless you get seriously covered. Alas, we did discover this the hard way when we went skiing this afternoon. There is a small run (maybe one or two hundred metres) right in the middle of town, about a minute walk from the bus station. We hired a snowboard for Keeley and skis for me (there were no snowboard boots in my size) and spent an hour re-learning what we'd forgotten. It took Keeley a large number of attempts to master the t-bar lift up the hill, and I had enough trouble keeping my feet pointing in the same direction. Fortunately it only took us one downhill run each to get it right, and we had a lot of fun after that. Keeley had a very spectacular stack which has left her with a bruised bum and wet jeans, but other than that it was really fun and, again, not as cold as I had been expecting. The worst thing is holding onto the cold metal lifts. We're looking forward to a much bigger expedition tomorrow.
We also bought some pork for dinner, making the most of the exchange rate to eat well yet again. I even found some zucchini for the first time since I left home (Keeley didn't have any). She found what she thought was custard powder in the supermarket, and muddled her way through it but it turned out to be vanilla pudding mix instead. This didn't bother us and it tasted pretty good with peaches.
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We slept at Dublin airport last night, and it was not as comfortable an experience as Stansted. The PA system kept blasting out warnings about leaving baggage unattended and making sure we adhered to the 100mL rule all night. We were aroused by the Garda (Irish police) at about 1am to check everyone's passports and flight details. At first we were afraid they would kick us out, but they were very friendly and our theory is that they were looking for non-travelling homeless people just camping for the night in the airport. On the upside, our restless night allowed us ample time to pack our bags to the weight limit and check them in stress-free. It also meant I slept soundly on both our flights. We flew to Stansted, got waived through passport control (something about arriving from Ireland), stood in a long queue to get on our next flight to Krakow and before you knew it we were on the continent. It is a lot different here to the affluent Ireland we just left. For a start, the place is covered in snow. The airport is pretty tiny (much smaller than I had expected) and the suburbs are classic Eastern Europe stereotype. Snow is everywhere, the buildings are mainly grey and brown, and a lot are pretty run down. It feels grungy, like it's still trying to catch up to the 21st century. It's exciting to be in a different place though, and in a strange way it feels a little like the outskirts of Hong Kong – I think it's the colours, or lack thereof. Everything feels grey and dull here. You can't knock the place we're staying though – Premium Hostel, a short walk out of the city centre, is clean, great value (around €12 a night each to stay in our own twin room), a pretty well-stocked kitchen, and very very friendly and helpful staff.
Tired, we didn't feel like doing much when we got here, so we went for a walk and bought some food for dinner. This was much more exciting than it sounds, though, as very few people speak even a little English here, and we managed to string some words and lots of sign language together to get a hearty meal. We are very proud of ourselves, given that we struggled to catch a bus here this arvo. We even got adventurous with our food – we found a ravioli-looking thing in the supermarket, and knowing nothing about it owing to our lack of ability to read Polish, bought it anyway. It turned out to be a bit like a Polish dim sim, at least that's what it tasted like, and we were doubly impressed with ourselves for not only experimenting but communicating in a foreign language to do it.
Tomorrow we're heading to Zakopane, a village in the mountains where we plan to go skiing. Through a fortunate twist of fate, it turns out we don't lose much at all to stay an extra four nights rather than getting a bus on Tuesday because of the prices. Of all the places in Europe, this is an okay place to be 'stuck' in that situation because the exchange rate makes it cheap. Keeley is very excited at this prospect, and it will definitely be cheaper than skiing in Switzerland or Austria (although we're not ruling that out… yet).
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Cork is a nice city, it has a lot of character and a handful of things to do, but we had explored what we wanted to explore yesterday and wanted to make the most of our time in the south of Ireland. We caught a bus to Blarney, only 8km from Cork, and visited the famous castle and Stone. We were very glad we did. The castle looms over a spectacular garden, which feels wild and free unlike a lot of strictly regimented gardens at palaces. A short walk from the ticket office follows a river to the castle itself, the north wall an imposing sheer vertical wall above us, probably four or five storeys high. It's all self-guided, with signs everywhere giving interesting pieces of information. Before you actually enter the castle, you can walk underneath it in a couple of different secret passageways that were used to get into, or escape, the castle. It was strange to be able to actually walk right in them, quite a long way, because most places would have it roped off. This is the same in the castle itself – you can explore almost every room in it, which is very cool. It has a very romantic medieval ruin feel about it, which is spectacular. The stone itself is a rather quick affair, because the man supervising it is obviously used to the summer high season (there was only one other person in the grounds with us) and he was very much lay down, reach back, kiss it, okay you're done and move on. Unfortunately this meant that I didn't get a chance to get Keeley's photo at the stone properly, but on the upside my photo wasn't much worse than the photos you can buy for €10. Regardless, it was an experience that I think everyone should do if they're in Ireland – it was a great setup and really enjoyable.
We caught the bus to Kilkenny, fortunately getting an earlier bus than we had thought we'd have to, and continued the medieval theme of the day with a tour of Kilkenny Castle. It was brilliant value at €2.50 a head (student), as the guide was incredibly detailed, professional, easy to listen to, and gave a suitable aura of respect to the place. Some of the features of the castle are very interesting – it was originally a square plan, with four walls and a central courtyard, but the south wall was destroyed in an attack and torn down, giving it a U-shape. The whole building has been restored to its 18th-century glory, including wallpaper like the bright yellow in the library (to reflect light and make it bright enough to read), the antique furniture (Keeley particularly liked the 'conversation chair'), and the gallery, which takes up the full length of one of the wings and has an ornately detailed hammerbeam roof and glass ridge to allow light in. It was one of the best experiences in terms of tours we had done.
We rounded out our very medieval day by staying in a castle. That's right, in a tiny town out of Kilkenny, there is a hostel set up in a castle. It's pretty cool, even if the caretaker seems a little out of it and the showers don't work. The dining room is set up with stone walls and the works. The only issue will be getting back to Kilkenny – it seems the bus doesn't run very regularly, so that could be fun…
DAY 29 – KILKENNY16/01/2009
The castle in Jenkinstown was fun, and as a bonus we washed our clothes for free (usually €4 a load) and got upgraded to a twin room rather than separate dorms for the same €14 a night pricetag each. This is just as well, as there was nobody else staying there, and it would have been a very lonely night. As it was, there was a creepy echo when we finally got out of bed this morning (we treated ourselves to a sleep in) suggesting we were, in fact, the only people on the property. We didn't see the weirdo caretaker again, so we just packed our bags and had brunch. We called the bus company and discovered we had less than ten minutes to dash up the road 'Amazing Race'-style to get the next service for God knows how long. It was fun. We dropped our bags at the train station, and spent the next several hours just wandering round Kilkenny. There is quite a lot of construction work going on over here, both in Kilkenny and Cork – in Cork there were two really big commercial developments in the city centre and in Kilkenny there was a hotel, a shopping centre (just completed), an urban redevelopment at the castle, and lots of other little renovations going on. Keeley looked in vain to find some replacement boots (as hers have a leak in them when it rains) but settled on a litre of choc-chip ice cream instead, which we demolished while waiting for the bus. The rest of the day has been pretty uneventful – a bus ride to Dublin, fast-food for tea (Subway for yours truly and Supermac for Keeley – she really wanted to try it as we haven't seen it elsewhere), another run for a bus from Dublin (the 16A didn't really seem to be following a timetable), and setup for another airport sleepover. Dublin airport is much quieter than Stansted, and we're secretly praying we don't get kicked out or something stupid, but we should be okay. We fly to London then straight on to Krakow tomorrow. Find great deals on eBay Net yourself a bargain
We got up nice and early to catch our bus here to Cork. Today marked a momentous day for a much bigger reason though – today was the first time in our whole trip that we've seen rain. Fortunately it wasn't torrential, just that annoying misty stuff that saturates you without really trying. It was also pretty windy, but not all that cold, which was good. We checked into our hostel (Sheila's) and went on a bit of a walk through Cork. It feels like a seaside town, with the river running through the middle of it, the grey skies and windy climate, lots of industrial and converted industrial buildings, but it has a cool vibe. There are lots of pubs and shops, though not as many as Dublin, and some really nice cobbled streets. We spent ages looking for the Butter Museum, which we thought would be really interesting and different, but when we finally found it we discovered it was closed until March. Dejected, we went south of the river to find the English market. We did eventually stumble on a pretty large food market, where we got some really good food deals. Anyway, it was really good value and we got a whole cooked chicken for €3 and some really nice bread for the next couple of days. We'll have to keep our eyes out for markets like this because it will make the trip that much better value.
We retreated back to our hostel with our food and checked the place out. It is one of the best hostels we've stayed in so far, its only downfall being that you have to buy breakfast rather than being provided. There is a really big commercial-style kitchen, free internet, clean showers, and… a sauna. That's right, we had a sauna this arvo for €2 (pretty cheap we thought). It was good to just relax after a fair bit of hectic travelling the last few days. I'd never had a sauna before and found it a bit uncomfortable, given it was so humid and around 55°C-65°C. It did give us a taste of what our families must be sweating through back home, but at least we could walk out of ours. Tonight we also had dinner with Johanna, Keeley's German exchange student from way back who is in Cork as a nanny for some rich people's kids. We went to a Chinese restaurant and ate lots, then went to a pub for a pint. It was good for Keeley to see her, but the conversation was a bit stilted (I suppose that happens when you haven't seen someone for three years). We'll see if the time with my exchange students works out like that.
Very importantly, and to my great elation, last night just before bed Lauren (our new Australian friend) allowed me to take her 40g Vegemite jar with me. Being so small it is safe from the evil airport security and I can once again enjoy the occasional piece of toast. Download free Holiday emoticons today! Messenger's gift to you!
We dragged ourselves out of bed with some effort this morning, still recovering from yesterday. It was nice to sleep in a proper bed though. Our dorm is a smallish room with six double bunks and an upstairs loft sort of thing. It's good though because everyone in our room is really nice and talkative – we spent some time chatting to Emma, an Aussie at the end of her year-long working holiday, and a couple of Italian blokes, one with an impressive tattoo on his leg of his parents birthdays. Each date is about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, so it's pretty big.
We went on the New Europe walking tour of Dublin today. Our guide, Ali, was a very entertaining and enthusiastic half-German, half-Irish bloke and we spent around three hours cruising the streets learning the history of Dublin. There have been many attempted revolutions here to overthrow the British government and monarchy throughout the ages, and we heard a bit about the many characters that have shaped the nation. The castle is really a large Georgian palace, with only a solitary tower remaining from the original medieval castle that burnt down. There is a big grassed helipad with Celtic snakes on it whose eyes light up at night to guide the choppers. One of the more amusing stories is of a plaque commemorating the death of a man who drove his horse and buggy off O'Connell Bridge – the amusing part being that he never existed and the plaque was a prank that remained unnoticed by the city council for two years. When they announced it would be removed, people started laying wreaths and flowers at the plaque in protest, so it stayed. We also saw Trinity College, and it is truly amazing. It would be very cool to study there. There are a few of the laws in the constitution of the College that outdate Irish law itself and theoretically still hold, such as the requirement that the College provide a free pint of stout to anyone arriving for their exams on horseback, or the superstition that undergrads can't walk under the tower for fear of failing, or the 'scholarship exams' that, if you finish in the top bracket (a near superhuman feat), entitle you to free meals, accommodation and postgrad tuition for five years, as well as waiving your requirement to sit exams for your final undergrad year. There is also a window that is the only one in the College where it is legal to shoot Catholics with a bow and arrow (it was originally a Protestant college).
After the tour we teamed up with Emma, another Aussie Lauren, and an English girl and went to a traditional Irish pub for some Guinness. It was much better than I remembered, and I drank mine very easily. Alas, the extreme cost of everything here prevented us getting more (€3.10 for half a pint!!). It really is ridiculously expensive here, and all the attractions cost to get in (even the churches!). We have been assured that it is only Ireland, and not the Euro currency, which is making it so bad so hopefully the continent won't be this crazy. We soaked up the city for a while, going on a walk, then not much else. We travel south to Cork early tomorrow so another early night hopefully.
Our night at the airport wasn't as uncomfortable as we had thought, and we definitely weren't alone. It seems like quite a popular thing to do with people catching early flights. Our sleeping bags that zip together were pretty handy too, and it made it a little more comfortable. We ended up getting around five hours sleep, which was just as well because we had some issues at check-in. Our bags had managed to put on about five kilos each during the last three weeks, as we had redistributed books into them, we each had some leftover alcohol from New Years, and just generally moved things around. This meant we were faced with a £120 overweight fee or to repack. Naturally we chose to repack. This crisis averted, we went through security where a more serious travesty occurred. Our Vegemite, used for only a couple of slices of toast, was seized. I was very distraught, and the tiredness probably didn't help. We had been very careful about keeping liquids and our cutlery out of our daypacks but the Vegemite had escaped our attention. The plane trip was a short one, although I managed to steal a few more precious minutes of sleep, and we arrived in Dublin ahead of schedule. This did not, however, make us feel any better about our fifty-minute wait at passport control. On the upside, we got into the city for a very cheap €1.90 each, were dropped off almost right outside our hostel (Avalon House) and logged on for some much needed internet time to ensure our families knew we weren't dead. Dublin is nice, it doesn't have the charm of Edinburgh, but it feels like it has a really nice mix of contemporary culture and history. I think we'll appreciate it more after we do our walking tour tomorrow after a good night's sleep.
We didn't really do much else, just wandered around and did some shopping. In fact, the highlight of the day was probably Keeley's "epic nachos", a truly magnificent creation of bolognaise sauce, cheese, corn chips and sour cream. Best of all the leftover sauce should feed us for the next couple of days. Find your ideal job with SEEK Time for change?
