Day 14 - 10 April 2019 Wednesday - Train from Krakow to Przemysl

When you book some components of your journey you think, ' this will be interesting' and that is fine from afar but when it finally gets here you think maybe I didn't mean 'this interesting'.  I am staying in the Hotel Europejski in Przemysl and the tariff is 110 Polish Zloty which is a little less than $40 per night, it appears to be clean, and it is close to the station.

Even a CRT television

Today I travelled by train from Krakow to a small Polish city 15km from the Ukrainian border called Przemysl, population about 60,000.  Now Przemysl is probably economically disadvantaged and hasn't recovered from the collapse of communism when everybody had a job and so on.  Apparently from what I have read the major cities such as Warsaw and Krakow are doing ok but the further you move out into the regional and country areas the harder it is economically for the population.

This city is also is unfortunate that it sits on one of the pathways through the Carpathian mountains so that any invader from the north or the east heading towards western Europe had to come this way, so it has been fought over, sacked, ransacked, invaded and occupied many times.  The most recent was in the 2nd WW when it was part of Poland and was initially invaded by both Germany and Russia (at the same time) and then the Germans kicked the Russians out and then the Russians kicked the Germans out and then the Russians hung around for the next 50 or so years.

During the years prior to TGW, this city and lots of Poland was part of the Austo Hungarian Empire (AHE for short).  The city was crucial to the security of the AHE so from about 1850 onwards they built a series of forts in an inner circle and an outer circle around the city.  Some have referred to it as the Verdun of the East.

Anyway to get to the point, these forts were crucial in a siege and a number of battles in TGW, and that is why I am here, to visit the forts and other military installations.  I have organised a guide and a driver for the day tomorrow and then I am out of here on Friday heading back to Krakow.

I am looking forward to filling you all in the forts,the siege, the battles, the outcomes, and the geo political consequences of the fighting in this region of the Eastern front.

I might pop in some pics later.  I don't think that the telly in my room works so I will have plenty of time.  Goods news I have got the telly working but now I am too scared to touch the controls in case I lose it again, anyway I am enjoying the Polish quiz program that the telly seems stuck on.

And I actually like this one

Fun Facts: I went to the castle which is the number 1 tourist attraction here and I was the only visitor there.  There is also a big rock there with a striped flagpole next to it,

Number of Steps: 9,330 (lots uphill though)

Observations: I wonder if I am the only Australian to have ever visited Przemysl.