Vilnius

Rain Rain Rain.

It pissed it down. We tried to see as much of the city as we could but realistically it was to wet. The fact that its an old city made it worse because all the shambles style buildings find ingenious ways to convert normal rain water into something reminisant of a log flume.

We braved a walk to this part of town called Uzpais (or something) It was surposed to be an independant artists colony. I expected a rerunof the Mad Max episode in Warsaw. Non came. There was a supermarket and a statue. To be honest if you hadn't told me it was a 'crazy' hippy paradise I never would have noticed.

Helen salvaged the day by discovering that out in the suburbs there was a massive water part. As we were already wet this made a lot of sense to us.

The park was pretty cool it had slides and jacuzzi, waves machines etc. All themed around the south sea islands in an every so slightly racist way. Good fun was had by all.

On the way we tried to go to the Cinema in a building called the Akropolis. Basically it was a masiive shopping centre with oppressive lighting and an American accent. It was far more effective as an ubermall then anything we've ever tried to create in Hull. The film wasn't out. We marvelled at some more capitalism then went home.

Train Day

The trip to Kaunus was a little odd to say the least.

It was 6 hours by train, but that is of course if the train choses to stop there.

It didn't

We went to Vilnius.

Vilnius is an churchy sort of a place. Not much bigger then Hull it is far to religiously saturated. Every church, of which there are thousands, has a name like The Orthadox Chrurch of the Holy Ressurection According to Mark Part II Remix. They should all be said in Robin from Batman's voice for full effect.

We had a nice chinese meal in a resturant and then frankly went to bed. 8 hours on a train does that to you.

Bialystok

In Bialystok I stayed with Pawel. He is a nice, combat gear wearing kind of a guy. He has a quality ponytail and happen to be the first orthadox christian I have knowingly met.

He drove us to his house, which he shares with his sister, he cooked us tea and then looked pissed off when I accidently let three stay flies into the apartment.

Bialystok is the home of Zubr and Zubr beer. A Zubr is essentially a massive bison type thing, hence bisongrass wodka. They only exist in poland and only vary rarely in the wild. So we went to the zoo to meet one.

It was bit and mean and whooly, however I got some good mug shots next to it.

We went round Bialystok with a group of Pawel's assorted friends, some from CS but most of them hadn't met before.

We drank a strange white drink in a Cafe with raisens knocking about in it. I did impreesions of British accents for the guys, they went down well. I feel guilty about being centre of attention sometimes even though i seem to seek it out at every oppertunity.

I also killed some of the many plentyful mosquitos that infest Bialystok.

there revenge would be swift and itchy...

Moon etc. Part 3

Sad News.

I heard from Teresa that one of the guys Neal has been at EXIT festival with died there. He fell 150ft off a castle ramparts. God knows how Neal and Scott are coping with this. 

That's all the info I have on that at the moment.

Warsaw Part 3...

After the endless and stressful banking escapade we met Witek and Casper ladened with bikes and preceded to journey to Praga, the spooky wrong side of the tracks part of town. Helen couldn't really fit on the bike, one of those france style girls one where you kind of have to sit upright to ride them, this ended up causing her a bit of pain and causing me annoyance. The bikes where ok really though. 

The journey was much better.

We crossed the river and went to the older part of town, possibly the only bit not destroyed in the war. It is famously scummy, and it was. However some bit of it were genius. For instance we went to what was, up until last year at least, the biggest black market in Europe. You could buy guns and sex if you wanted Casper informs me. Its now going to be the side of a massive football stadium ready, apparently ready for Poland/Ukraine 2012. 

After that we went to an old vodka factory which is now an arty type place. When we entered a land rover clad in rigging and camera's was film some people of different coloured scooters. Kind of like a rubbish Polish italian job. This scene combined with loud heavy music and a delapadated environment put me in mind of a Mad Max or something equally apocalyptic. 

Witek's mother fed us the the point of destruction on the night with quality Polish food. She had done this the previous night so we at least knew what to expect. It was a five course meal. She likes people to eat and eat a lot. we bought her flowers for cooking for us.

We where all so shattered from the biking and the food that we went to a bar on the night but really just flaked out. I met a guy in there from Manchester who's best mate is a Rovers fan. Who knew.

Anyway its now onto Bialystok now. 

Tatty Bye

P.S. 

Spelling and grammer mistakes are everywhere in this but fear not I ain't simple, its just that I have to write them in a massive hurry most of the time.

Moon, Fire, Red...Part 2

I can't remember were I was now...

Ah yes last night. 

Last night we had no money, well like 6pound. This is however enough to drink with. We met up with Witek's lifelong friend Casper, a cool and strangely constantly wound up guy. He's a bit of a legend really, he's been on the Trans-Mongolian as well as spending a lot of time in Ulan Bator and Moscow. He also lives with a half Japanese half Polish girl called Hannah who decried my idea of visiting lots of different areas of Japan in favour of just seeing one of two cities properly. Bollocks to that, I've already bought the rail ticket. 

At the start of the night the Bankomat thingy knicked Karol's card so she went home. Humorously we rang the ATM people and they rebooted the ATM from a control centre somewhere in Poland. we then discovered that not only does this not give you your card back but it also demonstrates how Polish ATM's are operated by Windows XP.

Anyway we were taken to a park, a fucking rough park, at night. This park had a ridiculously over the top play park in it with a creation known simply as 'The Spider' We climbed said spider and went on some tire swings. More interestingly on the way back someone asked Casper for a light, ran off with it, lit some Poy (Spinning ball of fire things that are used by hippies and people in the circus), then preceded to be shit at Poy and set her arse on fire, People should witness this at least once in their life.

Oh yer that night was when we looked out of the window and it was bright red, really really bright red. Very odd indeed. I bet the Polish shepards were loving it. 

Morning After...

We went back to the trade centre. It was open but didn't change travelers Cheques anymore. getting there took an hour but we then had to go to a bank in the centre of town. People who complain about english banks are inexperienced in the ways of the continent. It took 5 separate women 50minutes to cash two cheques. Most of this time was spent watching them natter rubbish to each other. Caster says it can be worse than this...

The Night I was Born the Moon Turned a Fire Red (Hendrix)

Warsaw.

A brief explanation is required before I start rambling on about Warsaw. I've been here before, last year to be precise.

when me and Harry travelled Eastern europe last year we tried, mostly in vain, to get the website couchsurfing to provide us with hosts. Basically couchsurfing is like facebook etc. but designed for travelers to be hosted by each other for free. You usually get some pretty good hospitality thrown into the bargin. we only managed to make CS work in Berlin and Warsaw, with Warsaw being the far better experience. Last time our host, Ania a bisexual theatre promoter and general arty type, showed us the city with the help of her two friends Karol and Witek. We ended up drinking vodka on Witek's building's roof, great views, and drinking vodka in a massive disused communist open air swimming pool.

Now that the swimming pool has been ripped down and Ania has moved in with her girlfriend in central Warsaw, it made more sense for us to stay with Witek, his mum and his cancerous dog Nelson. The dog is also blind and smelly for good measure. 

Staying with them is a little like being swept up into their world. The day we landed we where shattered but still ended up going drinking on the night in little cafes and Vietnamese resturants. The Vietnamese are strangely everywhere in Poland. The best moment of that night was when Witek quietly unwrapped a gun from a bag to give to his friend Casper. This gun it turned out is similar to an air rifle but it still looked bloody real. 

After a much needed sleep we ended being shown Warsaw by Karol on Sunday morning. This involved a lot of walking, in a kind of a good way. We found the Warsaw Trade Tower to get our travelers cheques sorted with American Express, then we found it to be shut. No trading on Sundays for these guys, that'll hardly drag you out of a recession now will it. 

Anyway, we then went to one of best museums I've ever been to. It was new and free and dedicated to the Warsaw uprising. For the unenlightened this involved local Poles rising up against the Nazis around 1943 and then beating then up thoroughly until the Russians invaded and murdered all those same Poles. The museum was all made from brick and iron and looked as industrial as running a resistance movement probably could. They also had replicas of Warsaw's sewers for you to walk round, a Halifax bomber and an old working 1940's printing press.

After that we walked through a lot of park and around he town centre. karol showed us a Vietnamese place were we could get cheap food, not that everything isn't already cheap here anyway.  We had vietnamese food, a silly ice cream and then wandered back to Witek's apartment. 

End of Part 1...

The Off

In theory everything is done. I left it all the bit fine really.

I spent most of Sunday running up an enormous photo bill to ring the Russian embassy to get my passport back in time. To the point were I kicked a few walls in anger and wrote slurs about automated phones systems on the same walls with biro. I felt better for it though.

I left the packing up of my house too late as well but its got done. It always does in the end.

I'm sick and tired of having to move out now its getting to be a masive pain in the arse, you never feel setteled. I've still got to do it twice more this year, really really can't be arsed.

Anyway we fly from Donny airport tommorrow. We couldn't get a lift for a tun of different reasons. Public transport for the win.

We should be out the house by 6am and in warsaw by 4pm. This is the theory anyway.

Peace out to everybody who I'll miss whilst I'm away,

Tom (your man from The East...of Hull)