June 9, 2013 - Malbork Castle, Poland

June 9, 2013 - Malbork, Poland

I took the train on a day trip to Malbork to see the Malbork Castle.  It was a 27PLN round trip and took about an hour each way.

During the 14 and 15th centuries Malbork Castle was the largest castle in the world.  It still remains the largest Gothic castle in the world. And the place it HUGE.

I was just a little bit annoyed to find out that the only tours were in Polish and all the audio guides were gone AND that there were no maps of the place.  After being yelled at in Polish for going in an exit and not knowing anything I was looking at I opted to search for and buy my own guide.  Sheeshhh, if there are no signs and no maps and I really dont think people should yelled at so readily.  ANYWAYS, with my personal guide in hand I knew a bit better where to go and what I was looking at and the day got much better. Check out all the pics! It took me over 3 hours to see all there was to see!

What I have learned:
The Teutonic Knights were a German chivalric order established in the Holy Land during the crusades.  This castle belonged to them

June 7 - 8, 2013 - Gdansk, Poland

June 7 - 8, 2013 - Gdansk, Poland

June 7:

First things first.  I had to eat lunch, so I went to the local "Milk Bar".  Originally, back in the day, this was a place where people could get their milk and  a cheap meal.  Today, you can still get a rather cheap meal.  However, these places don't have English menus which I knew would be rather difficult.  I just had to point at the things I wanted and I have to say it turned out pretty dang tasty!  I cant tell you what exactly I ate but it looks to be stewed cabbage, giant breaded meatball and potatoes! YUM!

I wandered around town on my own for a bit but decided I wanted to go on an organized tour.  I stopped in at the local info office and got on an English tour.  Sweet.  She took us all over the main part of town and made so recommendations of other places nearby that we should visit.

As part of the tour we got to see some raw amber.  Poland is famous for amber and the jewelry they make with it.  We learned that real amber floats on water while fake amber sinks.  And that there are 3 main colors of amber found in the this region, but many MANY different colors in the world.

June 8:
This day I went on the pirate ship tour of the river and bay.  We saw the shipping port, the Westerplatte memorial, and all the main square buildings.  Did you know that Gdansk was once one of the largest shipping ports?

The tour guide came to talk to me, I guess because he notice I was paying attention to his English version of the tour.  He asked where I was from and when I told he said "I thought so". When asked what he meant by that he followed with "Americans are always interested in the tour. The Brits are only interested in the bar" HAHA!!

What I have learned::
All the TV shows have been dubbed over. However, the same voice is used for all the characters and there is zero emotion.

June 5 - 6, 2013 - To Gdansk, Poland

June 5 - 6, 2013 - Getting to Gdansk, Poland.

June 5:
Took a 6 hour bus back to Krakow.  More friends!

June 6:
Took a 10 hour bus to Gdansk, Poland.

What I have learned:
Having A/C, WiFi and an electric outlet make long bus rides more tolerable.

June 1 - 4, 2013 - Budapest, Hungary

June 1 - 4, 2013 - Budapest Hungary

June 1:
Long bus ride from Krakow to Budapest.  I immediately meet 6 people from the hostel that were planning on going out.  So I joined them.  I returned when I start to see daylight! Here, that's about 4:30am.

June 2:
As you can imagine I sleep in.  I do manage to make it to the 2:30pm free walking tour.  See the pics!

Afterwards, so of the tour group go together to have "the best" goulash in town.  Hungary is known for its tasty goulash stew.  I hearty beef stew with veggies usually served with some sort of bread.  Yum!

June 3:
I must be getting tired.  That or the cold rainy weather is getting to me! I had yet another lazy day.  I only ventured out for lunch at a cafe.

June 4:
I did my own wandering around town.  Visited the park, the rock hospital, the oldest bakery in town (had a cream cake),  the castle (again), the Great synagogue,  and went on a night wine cruise along the Danube river.

The rock hospital was quite cool.  The natural caves under the castle were transformed into a hospital and used during WWII.  Later, during communist rule, parts of the cave we turned into a nuclear bunker.  The hospital was public knowledge, but they managed to keep the bunker part of it a secret for many many years.  To refill the gas tanks they even went as far as to divide the water trunks that watered the flowers into two sections.  one with water and one with fuel so that the truck would look like it was just watering the flowers.

The river is getting really high! I hear its already flooding in Prague.

Stairs from the castle to the rock hospital.

Old school ambulance.

Hahahaha, the gift shop was selling viruses.

Luckily, they were the plush toy variety.

Parliment building from the castle.

 Grand Synagogue

And the cruise on the river was amazing.  Everything was lit up beautifully!

What I have learned:
The Hungarians are descendants of the Huns, as in Attila the Hun.  They have Asian origins!