Hey, remember when we were in Toronto?

Once in a while something in our current place jogs a memory of a prior location. Or a funny thought from three months ago pops into our heads, or we're having a particularly hard travel day, or we can't recall where we were 10 days ago, or we just want to remind ourselves how lucky we are... On these once-in-a-while occasions, one of us looks at the other and says, "Hey, remember when [fill in the blank]...?"

This "hey, remember when...?" flashback is brought to you by today's date.

Despite our intentions to keep Canada as inexpensive as possible, we could not resist splurging on two tickets to the Toronto Urban Roots Festival. Music is our only real splurge in Portland anyway, and this is something we're interested in exploring everywhere we go. (If we can ever stay up past 9pm, that is...)

The TURF July 4th festival timing could not have been more perfect - nothing says celebrate-America-from-Canada like a trip to Niagara Falls and four days of good folky music, right? A much better idea than Plan B which involved sitting in Quebec City eating baguettes with all the anti-Americans.

It's also fitting that we saw Frank Turner at some point on this adventure, and that he was the driver for the TURF splurge. See, we owe a lot to Frank. His Portland show two years ago was our first date. A week after that show, Patrick and I sat across from each other talking tall tales of wanderlust and the road beneath our feet, and the seed for this trip was planted.

Last October, on the one-year anniversary of that show, we got a little sentimental and wrote Frank a "thank you" email. He actually replied (!) within hours (!), wished us luck on our still-to-be-determined adventure, and told us to let him know if we'd be nearby during any of his tours so that we could have a beer.

So when we were in Toronto, we emailed him - and once again he actually replied (!) within hours (!). Various forces prevented us from actually meeting him, such as the fact that he's Frank Turner for gosh's sake, but we're holding out hope that he's touring on our path someday soon.

 

Portland TedX - March 2013 
(handshake still pending, 
and we still owe him a drink)

We had a great time at the festival, though. Familiar bands like Camera Obscura, Flogging Molly, Neko Case, Xavier Rudd and Canada's own The Wooden Sky were great. Newly discovered bands like Whitehorse, The Cat Empire, The Sadies, The Barr Brothers, and Portland locals Larry and His Flask were a lot of fun too. Plus it was a tiny venue to begin with, and the off-and-on rain (and outright downpour Sunday) kept the crowds down.

Toronto, ON, Canada - July 2013
(one of my favorite feet shots)

This "one splurge per country/continent" idea might be a running theme - or a really, really bad idea. Hopefully we won't be sitting in an empty apartment in Portland this December saying "Hey, remember when we spent all our money and had to cut our trip short a year?"

Zdiar, Slovakia - October 2013

(happy two years)

How approximately 10 minutes in Zakopane turned into 15 hours.

Despite all the recommendations, we didn't intend to spend any time in Zakopane ("Zack-o-pa-nay") - we wanted to head through this touristy area of Poland straight to the quiet town of Zdiar in Slovakia, just across the border.

We also didn't intend for the direct Zakopane-Zdiar bus service to be discontinued (until ski season) three days before we arrived in Zakopane. But it was, and we didn't really find this out until 5pm, and a taxi to Zdiar would've cost us about $30, and other options weren't available until the next morning, so we were stuck there for a night while we figured out Plan B.

there are far worse places to be "stuck"

far worse places

far, far worse places

Food notes - none, other than:

• there is a small grocery store about 10 minutes west of the bus stop on the main strip
• and also a Biedronka about 10 minutes southwest of the visitor's information center

Lodging notes:

• we stayed at Stara Polana Hostel because it was easy to find and the other easy to find place, Target Hostel, was closed until the next day - Stara Polana was definitely a youth hostel, as evidenced by the huge kitchen/dining area and giant soup pots, but since it was off season we got a private double room with a bathroom pretty cheap and we had a lovely view of the mountains from our window

the digital old-school radio was a nice touch

The woman at the Zakopane tourist office was incredibly helpful and told us exactly which buses to take. She forgot to mention that we'd need euros for the Slovakian bus, and we forgot to think about that too. We got off the bus at Lysa Polana as instructed, walked across the Poland/Slovakia border as instructed, found no "bankomat" (ATM) and in fact no town at Lysa Polana...

woohoo, walking across the border!

um... now what?

... and hoped the nice man who spoke English and offered to taxi us to Zdiar wasn't an axe murderer. He wasn't, and after a pricey but appreciated 15 euro ride during which we peppered him with tourist-related questions to ensure we got our money's worth out of that 15 euro, we arrived at the Zdiar bankomat and then our hostel destination.

And immediately extended our stay until Wednesday. Ahhhh... mountains. How we've missed you.

Krakow recommendations you might not find on TripAdvisor.

Look. Everyone who goes to Poland goes to Krakow. We know this, so we won't bore you with how fun it is to sit in the Market Square and people-watch or window-shop in the Cloth Mill. We won't go on and on about the beautiful riverside on a clear day or the picturesque Market Square at night. We won't detail every single gorgeous church and cemetery. We won't tell you about the bugler... But!

We will tell you that the parks in the area are totally worth it on a clear day.

slowly enjoying Krak Mound

slowly absorbing Parc Jordana

We will insist that you check out the various open markets. Of the more known markets Stary Kleparz was our favorite...

so much fun to browse

... but we also ran across Plac na Stawach near Parc Jordana one morning where we were treated to absolutely ginormous free samples of delicious pastry treats by one of the shop owners. And on Saturday morning we went to Hala Targowa's flea market in search of a warm sweater for Patrick - no luck with that, but if we'd been looking for socks, pirated DVDs, or antique dishware we would've totally been in heaven.

We will highly recommend the free Jewish quarter walking tour. (OK, this one is on TripAdvisor but bear with us.) We also did the general free walking tour our first morning in the city, which was interesting and a helpful introduction, but we got much more out of the Jewish quarter tour led by one of the 200 self-identified Jewish residents living in Krakow these days. The tour will take you through the Kazimierz district and Krakow's ghetto - we wish we'd done it earlier in our visit, instead of waiting until our last day to explore these less touristy neighborhoods.

If you do any of the free walking tours, we will suggest you seek out some of the street art highlighted on the free map. Most of the art is outside of Old Town, and it's a great way to see Kazimierz if you don't get to the Jewish quarter tour.

anti-corporate scrabble aht

anti-communist mural aht

anti-television stair aht

(steps lined with famous quotes)

On Auschwitz-Birkenau... yes, everyone who goes to Krakow tours these camps and yes, we did too, and no, words can't possibly express how we felt during and after the whole experience.

What we will say is that we did a self-guided tour around Birkenau before visiting Auschwitz, and we recommend that order vs the opposite. That wasn't really our original plan but you can only visit the Auschwitz museum tour-guide-free before 10am and after 3pm (guides are about $20/person and it sounds like they rush you through it so we wanted to visit on our own time), and our bus from Krakow didn't get in until about 10:30. So we took the free shuttle to Birkenau (no guide required anytime) and wandered there for about 3 hours before heading back to Auschwitz. English translations are available on all the maps and monument plaques, and being able to walk through what remains of the buildings at Birkenau before seeing Auschwitz helped us to appreciate (for lack of a much more appropriate word) the atrocities of both sites even more.

Other things we will tell you about Krakow...

the world's best laudromat is at the corner of Dietla and Starowislna

the pigeons are very efficient (or maybe just picky?)

seeing Peruvian flute players in Native American costume

in the middle of Krakow is just weird

the national pantheon underneath the Church of St Peter and St Paul,

soon to house influential artists and writers,

is pretty awesome

October might be the best time to visit

Lots of great food cart-type places in Krakow (finally!), great eats in general too. Food notes:

• "bagels" from the street vendors - get there early, before they go stale
• beetroot soup and pierogies at Domowy Przysmaki - just do it!
• cinnamon donuty things from street vendors
• unpasteurized Tyskie from Alchemia
• zapiekanki in Kazimierz's Plac Nowy

Lodging notes:

• Hostel Atlantis: cheap, lots of people, a bit industrial and noisy for our taste, big kitchen and common area, choir practice between 8-9am while we were there (better than it sounds - they were amazing!)
• Football Corner Hostel: also pretty cheap, all the football (that's soccer to you Americans) your little heart desires, only 3 dorm rooms and on a quiet street so in theory nice and quiet (except for when your UK dormmates party until 3am and snore like buzzsaws after they do finally settle in for the night), very close to the bus/train station and main square, but really lacking in common area space so we never felt completely comfortable

We had a great time in Krakow, and I'm sure that the 200,000 students (1/4 of the population) enjoy studying there, but soon enough it became another city and we were ready for some down time. Five regrets, though - not going to the Wieliczka salt mine ($30/person for admission), not taking the Communist walking tour ($20/person + guide tip), not going to Schindler's Museum (not pricey, we just ran out of time), not seeing a puppet show at Teatr Groteska ($20-30/person, we found a deal where first time visitors could get tickets to select performances for ~$3, but they were sold out while we were there), and not getting to Ojcow National Park (hint: if all the info you can find says "you need a car to get there", you really do need a car to get there). But that just means there's more to do next time we visit!

Speaking of cities and getting out of them - time for the High Tatras... and Slovakia!

Friday five: gnome hunting (and other fun!) in Wroclaw.

Wroclaw ("Vro-tz-wav"), known as Poland's Venice, was not in our original list of "must-see" places. But we ran across a quirky Wroclaw city map at our hostel in Warsaw highlighting funky street art, bridges galore, and a gnome scavenger hunt. And then we spontaneously decided to go to Prague and Wroclaw was right on the way... To our surprise it ended up being a highlight of Poland.

We got a really good vibe riding the tram from the bus station to our hostel. Warsaw was bustling with activity, but Wroclaw felt alive. In our short stay we would feel some kind of pulse flowing from the river and canals we crossed, the parks we passed through, the weekend events...

  

Senior Day celebration in the square 

(same day as Gnome Day, natch)

rainy day marathon 

(causing a 2 hour delay for our bus to Prague)

... and the countless youth we saw roaming the streets. All of this is probably why it's a big destination for Europeans looking for cheap beer and a good time on their way to Krakow. But it's so much more than a party town.

Like Warsaw, this city has also been taken over and reclaimed numerous times over the centuries. Given its history of being invaded and conquered by various countries and cultures, now it seems to be a bit of an ethnic and cultural melting pot. For example, our free walking tour guide (love these guys!) pointed out a corner where four religious institutions live harmoniously.

well, at least that's how he described it -

residents will have to confirm

Wroclaw also seemed to be a bit more modern than Warsaw. Vegetarian restaurants and foods were easy to find; the multimedia fountain used that irritatingly catchy Daft Punk song (as well as other equally terrible pop songs) alongside classical music during the water show; even the street art was more art than a political statement.

Honestly, it reminded us a lot of Portland.

Other than the elevator to the top of St John the Baptist's church for a wonderful panoramic view of the city, and the tip for the free walking tour guide, we opted to skip tourist attractions that cost money. We did visit the impressive ethnographic museum (free on Sundays). The exhibits featured centuries-old decorative, cooking and farming artifacts; some details on the area's history over the last 500 years; and an entire floor of life sized dioramas showing typical life back in the day. Really, who doesn't love a good life-sized diorama?!

Otherwise, we just meandered and enjoyed the city. Five Wroclaw experiences that made this our favorite town in Poland, in no particular order:

a Hare Krishna parade down the main square

where no one really seemed to blink an eye at first 

and then lots of the crowd joined in pulling the carriage down the square

walking everywhere - they have a good transit system too 

but the main city is totally walkable top to bottom in a day

(or bike-able if you have short legs) 

speaking of walking, the canal path was really charming 

(and featured the first signs of autumn)

speaking of canals, there are over 100 bridges throughout the city 

even tiny bridges where tiny gnomes light tiny oil lamps

and speaking of gnomes, not gonna lie - 

the gnomes are pretty awesome 

(moreso the original gnomes than ones commissioned by merchants to draw business)

Food notes:

• great chicken salad lunch at Bela Cafe (no link available, check the CitySpy map though)
• excellent falafel at Vega
• instant packages of borscht are actually quite good if you add the right amount of water (and reconstituted soy nuggets and canned peas)

our most random meal yet

Lodging notes:

- Corner Hostel was in a great location but sort of dark and sort of dirty and and very, very noisy

but our room had a balcony with a great view

Definitely a cool town we'd like to visit again. Next stop: a few days in Prague before hitting our vineyard/orchard Help Exchange gig. Charles Bridge and Czech beer, here we come!