What makes an Irish Pub Irish?

When you're on the road - especially by yourself - you often try and find people to talk to, and when in small Eastern European towns, if you dont meet people at the hostel, the next best place is an Irish Pub...

I'm gonna go out on a limb and declare theres actually more "Irish" Pubs in the rest of the world, then there is in Ireland itself. Every city in the world has at least one, but what makes them Irish?

Usually it means selling some Guiness, having a TV showing all of the UK and Irish sports and having some "Irish" memorabilia on the walls - but not always.

In Gdansk, where I was most recently, there was an Irish Pub and a "Celtic" Pub (as well as an English Pub). Myself and two young Kiwi lads went in to the Celtic pub one night, to find the ground covered in leaves and and dirt. Ok. So after taking a seat, we realise we are in the middle of a dance contest. Irish dancing? No. Polish dancing maybe...? No. The songs of choice were "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake, and a song by Missy Elliot, and the dancing was that booty shaking hip hop style. I mean, why wouldnt you have that in a Celtic bar?

Gdansk was another in the line of really pretty towns that I've been to that were so very quiet. We even went to the local club, and before going in asked the bouncer "so is there many in tonight?". "Nope, nobody". I liked the honesty though. It's apparantly the town to go in the summer because its pretty much Poland's best summer resort town...seems I was a couple of months late!

I'm now Warsaw, and after being here a few days I have checked out all the sights including the castle and the old town, and all that, but have yet to find anywhere decent to drink...

Hmmm...might go find an Irish Pub.

The Cold Has Arrived!!

Winter in Eastern Europe officially set in - on Friday the 13th!! One day I was walking around in shorts and a T-Shirt, and the next, I was reaching for everything I owned!! As I started this trip in the middle of August, I didnt bring anything warmer then one jumper, so spent a whole day searching for a decent coat...ah the heady life of a traveller!!

Berlin was really good and I'm so glad I went. I recomend anyone to check out New Berlin Tours, who run a free walking tour that goes for 3-4 (or in our case 4.5) hours through most of the main sights of Berlin. They also have other tours, including a pub crawl which costs just 10 Euro, and includes a few free beers at the start and unlimited vodka/orange shots between pubs. Theres also plenty of drink specials at each place - the 1 euro jagermesiters had me done! I think I crawled out of bed at about 3pm the next day!

The Berlin wall isnt like I expected. For the most part it was jsut a narrow wall, not the sort you can stand on top of like we've seen in pictures (that was only a small section).

I also visited the Olympic Stadium, home of the 1936 Olympic games, and built by the Nazi's. That stadium was the scene for two of the most famous moments in sport; Jesse Owens win at the '36 games, and Zinadine Zidanes infamous headbutt in the 2006 World Cup Final!

I also visited the "Reichstag" which is the Parliament building, and has a viewing platform type thing at the top. As its where all the politicians work, you have to go through a metal detecter and security to get in. When I went through, i was pulled aside and asked to take the knife out of my backpack....knife...what knife? Oh my butter knife!! Luckily it still had the jam on it to back up my story!!

After leaving Berlin I went back in to poland, to a little town called Torun, which is really very pretty, but also very quiet. I tried to find a good place to drink one evening and found what was definately a locals bar. They were laughing and joking, and all went quiet as I went in. Um...er...prosze jeden Piwo...idiot!

The hostel in Torun was really nice, but oh so quiet. on one night there, there were only 4 people, and this included the staff member! Very friendly though.

I'm now in Gdansk on the coast and it is freezing! but its another very pretty city.

I have recently added some more pictures to my photobucket sight, and will add heaps more as soon as the trip is over!

Off the Map!

After farewelling Sean and Andi in Krakow, I headed up to Wroclow in Polands west to meet back up with Dan and Jen.

Wroclow seems like the sort of place you would go to if you knew someone there, but for those of us that dont...not so impressive. We pretty much spent a couple of days sitting on our butts watching TV. Was good for saving a bit of cash though!

Since then I have said goodbye to Dan and Jen for possibly the last time on this trip, and made a little diversion from my "eastern Europe" trip and headed up to Berlin. Now as I'm travelling with an "Eastern Europe" lonely planet guide, I'm alone in more ways then one here at the moment, but so far so good.

Today I largley just walked around the city, following the path of the old Berlin Wall as well as seeing the famous "Checkpoint Charlie". Just to prove beyond any doubt that commercialism is alive and well, the fast food joint next door - have a guess what it was called....thats right "Snack Point Charlie". Nice one!

Farewell to the Youngens!

After spending nearly two weeks with Sean and Andi, its become time to go our seperate ways and continue our trips seperately!

One of the best parts of travelling is meeting people you wouldnt otherwise meet, and these two prove the point.

Andrea (Andi) is from Louisianna (via Tennesee) in the states and is so completely different from anyone else I have met in my life, but been a great friend to travel with - and taken our American bashing (You guys's are Stoopid!) all in good fun!! It's good to meet people who have completely different beleifs and thoughts on life that you do, which you can (too often drunkly) discuss with them, without one person trying to convince the other of their point of view.

Oh and if you wanna know what Andi looks/sounds like, just watch Toy Story 2 and look out for Jessie the Yodelling Cowgirl.... :)

Sean, on the other hand, a Melbourne lad, was the kid of the group, being in a gap year between School and Uni, and constantly made me feel old. Can not remember the amount of times I said "what do you mean you havent heard of....??".

Sean provided us with entertainment simply by such acts as having a little too much to drink one night and being too drunk to get of bed when the drinks came back...Good work junior!!

All in all its been a fun couple of weeks - even though Dan, Jen and I felt very old at times (those grandpa quotes will not be forgotten)!

Free Beer?? Where do I sign up?

Free beer...say that to a backpacker you may as well be family. On our last night at Mama's Hostel here in Krakow, the hostel provided free beers for everyone in the hostel from 8pm to 11pm. You have never seen so many people change their Friday night plans so quickly!! There was even a DJ. Ok it was the slightly nutty girl who works behind reception, but she was pumping out the tunes and looked the part.

Later we were taken out to a pretty cool bunch of nightclubs in one building by the staff. Was reasonably impressed with the nightlife in Karkow. Plenty of decent places all quite close together, not like in Prague. Of course, this led to young Sean struggling to keep his drink down (the guy in the bunk below appreciated it...no really!).

This hostel seemed happy to give stuff away. One day there was free fruit (I think I remember what fruit is...) and the following day it was free cake. They were so keen to give stuff away, and like any backpacker I was very keen to take!

It actually turned out to be a great hostel, being so close to what is a very impressive city square in Krakow, and aside from a pretty crappy bathroom situation was one actually a really awesome hostel. There was also a good cheap internet cafe downstairs which also let you make REALLY cheap international calls. Quality.

So now its off further north in Poland...hitting the smaller towns now, so hopefully they are just as impressive!

Wieliczka Salt Mines

Something I had never heard of coming to Krakow, were the 700 year old salt mines located 15km away in the town of Wieleczka. At first you would not think this was very impressive, but it turned out to be a great day, and worth the visit.

Andrea, Sean and I spent the day walking around the mines on a guided tour, and walked about 180 metres underground and around 2.5km long...but this was just 1% of the total area of the mine, giving some idea of the scale.

Built in to the mines are a series of amazing chapels, which the miners used to pray at before going to work, due to the high risk of working at these mines with Methane explosions and flooding being constant dangers. All of the statues and carvings are actually created out of salt rock (which contains about 96% salt) which enables them to be lit up creating spectacular effects.

Adding to the day was our tour guide who had an awesome dry sense of humour, that you dont normally expect from local tour guides! "Please do not lick the statues"!

Auschwitz

From Krakow, one of the must see sights, was that of the Nazi World War 2 concentration camp, Auschwitz and Birkinau (Auschwitz 2).

Dan, Jen, Sean, Andrea and I all headed off for what we knew would be a full on day, but something that you have to see, and it was well worth the trip.

At the original Auschwitz site, there were museums which included some of the personal items taken from the prisoners after they were killed. This helped put into perspective the scale of it all, with piles and piles of items, including clothing, luggage and even hair collected. What was really depressing though was the collection of child/baby items...

Birkinau was actually the bigger of the extermination camps, housing 400 people per building, with hundreds of wooden buildings, many of which having only their brick chimneys remaining.

While it is kind of a depressing day, it is a must see, and a line written above one of the doors sums it all up. Those that do not remember history, are destined to relive it.

Olomouc

Having seen the city of Prague, we were all pretty keen to see something of smaller town life in the Czech Republic so we headed east to a college town called Olomouc. To be quite honest I had never heard of the place (it wasnt in the lonely planet ok!) but its turned into one of our better stops.

The hostel we stayed at, Poets Corner, was without a doubt the most well thought out hostel I have ever stayed at. Things to do, places to drink (with good honest opinions) they had it sorted. Its run by a couple from Australia who were travellers themselves so they know what we want! Perfect. They're also very friendly, with Greg inviting us to join him at the local Ice Hockey teams match. While they lost 3-0 (they really do suck!) it was a good nights entertainment for about a pound. A little extra entertainment came with Dan got the chance to go onto the ice and shoot for goal to win a prize, which he did - the bastard!

Another highlight was getting to actually eat at an authentic Czech Restaurant, which was recommended by the owners. This place had great food (pork knuckle!!) and very reasonable prices (beer was about 40p!!).

We had a couple of good nights out there too. There is one really bad "bar" that is actually inside a disused old Russian aeroplane - with original seats and all! Its one of those places that is so bad its good! Another night, possibly the bigger one, saw us and a small group of people drink on at the local Irish bar (theres one in every city!). There was much alcohol related sillyness happening that night (photos of which I'm not sure will ever see the light of day) and some down right acts of stupidness, that cant really be mentioned (im looking at YOU Sean).

On the whole, Olomouc was a good place to spend a couple of days, and leaves you wishing you could take Poets Corner everywhere you went!