My thoughts on Poland

We left Poland today, earlier than scheduled and here are my thoughts on Poland. First off, let’s start on the positive side. I really liked the Poles friendliness, we only encountered one or two grouchy people in our week there. Everyone was friendly and eager to please. They also really seemed to like Americans. I also truly enjoyed the cuisine we had in Poland. Periogis were awesome, and pretty much every where we ate was above average. The best spots were the vegetarian eateries in Krakow, one of which we ate at 3 times. The sites were also nice……from the salt mine, to the film about Warsaw to the scenery of Zakopane, everything we saw was memorable. And of course, we really enjoyed our visit with Maria!

Now to the negative side…….First off, there is a complete and utter lack of signage. Literally there are almost no signs, no street signs, no signs pointing to Centrum, and the signage at the transportation system was pathetic. This segueways into my other complaint nicely. The transportation system is sub-par, the roads are in horrible condition and deciphering schedules was daunting. Its never easy to do in foreign language but for some reason it was much more challenging. Also, outside of our visit with Maria, nothing seemed to go our way whether this was bad luck or just poor planning, I don’t know. But it seemed everything we tried to do, something stopped us from accomplishing it as simply as it should have been. Due to all of this we left Poland early. We are now in Poprad Slovakia (which does not have the signage problem), where we will see the Slovak side of the High Tatras.

Things that will only interest me:
– I didn’t read as much in Poland, partly due to the poor conditions of the roads, but I did finish Great Expectations.
– I didn’t listen to near as much music either, mainly due to my ipod battery being dead on one train ride, and on one train ride our compartment mates seemed slightly sketchy at first. But I did manage to listen to Architecture in Helsinki, Cibo Matto, Minus the Bear, Madlib, Jackie Brown Soundtrack, Camera Obscura and My Morning Jacket.