Day 15 - 11 April 2019 Thursday - Przemysl

Clair, they have done it to me again, a hotel website with lots of happy people standing around the hotel bar, but when you arrive there the bar hasn't operated in years.  Luckily there are a number of other bars, that are open, around the town and I have discovered the bar Bosko and it even has Wi Fi.

Big touristy day, sorry, amateur historian day today with my guide, Marcin and driver, Andrew waiting for me outside the hotel at a rather chilly 9.00 am.   

Andrew & Marcin

We visited four forts on the outer fortification ring, a communist era command centre, a strange bar, a tartar mound and observation point looking over the city, some TGW cemeteries and a bunker from the 2nd WW Molotov line.  And, Andrew gave me a bag full of bottles of homemade preserves, pickles and various home made distilled spirits.

The forts were the main reason I came here and they were fascinating,  Marcin chose four of the best preserved forts or ones that best represented a particular style or era of fort building.  There is about 25 major forts and a similar number of minor forts in the outer ring and probably something similar in the inner ring.  Before surrendering the forts in 1915 the soldiers of the AHE destroyed or attempted to destroy some of the forts with explosives with varying degrees of success so some are more ruined than others.

At the start of TGW the city was part of the AHE and the city and forts were garrisoned by troops from all over the empire.  Then after a siege of 3 or 4 months and the loss of 10s of thousands of lives on both sides, including the civilian citizens of the city the Russians occupied the city.   Then the Germans stepped in to help their AH allies and they retook the city from the Russians after another, albeit much shorter siege.  

After the end of TGW the the parts of the AHE that we now know as Poland gained their independence, but of course the fighting wasnt over.  From 1919 to 1921 the Poles fought a number of wars against the Russians and Ukranians all over the location of the new borders.  Some of the this fighting took place around Przemysl.  Andrew said that his grandfather has lived in four countries without moving house, AHE, Poland, Ukraine and Russia.  He also fought in four wars, on various sides.

After all this Poland settled down to life as a fiercely independent country until 1 September 1939 when it was invaded from the west by Germany and from the east by Russia (USSR).  Przemysl was in the unfortunate position that the the river that runs through the city, the San, was the agreed dividing line between the two invaders.  So the southern bank (old city) was occupied by the Russians and the northern bank (new city) was occupied by the Germans.  During this time the Russians, expecting trouble from the Germans built a series of bunkers along the river, called the Molotov line, one of which we visited today.  The Russians were right to expect trouble and the Germans kicked them out as part of operation Barbarossa and the Germans remained in occupation until being defeated by the Russians in 1945.  During this time the Germans exterminated pretty much all of Przemysl's 16,000 Jews.

After the 2nd WW Poland was occupied by the Russians and remained a communist controlled country until 1989.  During this time the Cold War developed between Russia and the communist controlled Eastern European countries and the USA and their allies, including Australia.  Today, I visited a communist era control room, located under the local primary school.  It is a actually a facility of a number of rooms designed to be sealed off from the outside world in the case of a nuclear attack.  It was constantly manned from the late 1950's until the mid 1990's.  It was an interesting tour and scary to realise how prepared they were for a full scale nuclear war.  The tour finished with a fake nuclear attack and us having to evacuate through a series of tunnels whilst being shouted at in Polish, good fun, I think.

Cold war control room

Nuclear war battle map, check out the little nuclear bombs in western Europe

I've gone on a bit here, but I needed to put things in perspective. Ive had a great day , Marcin spoke very good English, but Andrew not very much but they were nice guys provided a great tour, I would heartily recommend them to anybody coming this way.  This is being composed in bar Bosko over a couple of beers, whilst I decide where I go for dinner.  I haven't downloaded any pics from today yet so they will come later.

Fun Facts:  I was that close to the Ukraine border I coulda spit on it, but this is still a very sensitive area so I chose not to.

Border markers

Step Count: 10,810

Observations:  Average wage for somebody working in a shop here about Zl2,000 (about $750AUD), per month.

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.

Day 13 - Tuesday 9 April 2019 Budapest to Krakow

Up early, had to be at the airport at 7.20am for a 9.20 flight.  It seems funny going through all the rigmarole for an international flight and then spend 40 minutes flying in a Dash 8.  Still, a nice flight with LOT Polish Airlines.

I am staying at the Imperial Hotel in Krakow, which is right on the edge of the market square, some say the square here is the largest in Europe, but I am not sure about that.  The square is surrounded by restaurants and bars, all with outdoor dining and drinking areas looking out across the square.

I am sitting in one of the cafes, still within range of my hotel's wi fi typing this and lo, I hear a trumpet player in the distance.  The trumpeter plays a tune from the ramparts on the hour but he only ever gets half way through and suddenly stops.  The legend is that in 1363, or thereabouts an observant guard spotted the dreaded hun or turk or somebody at the gate and started playing his trumpet as a warning, but halfway through his warning call he was struck in the throat by an arrow and died without completing his call.  But his warning was sufficient to arouse the garrison and they defeated the enemy.  So now, whenever this tune is played it is never completed.  My word you people learn some interesting stuff reading this blog.

I am only in Krakow for one night.  Tomorrow I get involved in some TGW stuff, goody I hear you all say.  Tomorrow I catch the train to Przemysl, the scene of a major siege on the Eastern front in TGW.  I have a guide and he has a driver organised for the day on Thursday and we will be visiting various sites around the town relating to the siege.  The town was occupied by both the Germans and the Russians in WW2 and we will be visiting some of those sites.  We will also be visiting a cold war command centre from the time Poland was part of the Warsaw pact.  I bet you can hardly wait.

Poland has experienced a lot of history and I intend to cover it all!

Lunch today was the largest pork schnitzel I have ever seen with a complimentary starter of the largest pickle I have ever seen with cold sauerkraut and a plate of french fries and a cold Polish wheat beer and a complimentary plum brandy (I think) to finish with, all in all most satisfying.

After visiting Przemysl I am returning to Krakow for 3 days so will report more on this city then. 

Fun Facts: The drivers of the horse drawn carriages use a bag on a stick to catch the horse droppings (most of the time).

Step count today: 10,850

Observation: Heavens to betsy, they still give you a plastic straw, sometimes two, in your spritzer, we will all be going to hell.

Day 12 - Monday 8 April 2019 - Budapest

Once again beautiful weather, forecast 22c today and me with no warm weather clothing.

Nothing touristy organised today, so went for a big walk along one of the major city promenades to a popular park and gardens and then walked back through some of the neighbourhoods with a stop for lunch along the way.  Great day to be out walking.

I actually found what to me looked like a 'mittel' European streetscape from maybe the 1920's - 1930's.  It was a bit off the tourist track and hadn't been gentrified too much.  It was on the edge of the Jewish quarter and I could almost imagine what it would have looked like when Budapest still had a large Jewish population.  The term 'mittel' Europe is one used by the Germans and describes the various countries in this part of Europe, neither Western or Eastern, and of course the Germans would have a name for it, seeing they came here often enough, sometimes uninvited.

I also found a street with some of the 'ruin' pubs, these are a particular Budapest attraction and started with pubs being established in ruined buildings.  These days they aren't quite in ruined buildings but they are deliberately pretty grungy, probably not my scene.

For lunch I decided to go the whole Hungarian hog and had a beef goulash with noodles,  It is like a beef stew with little spiral noodles, accompanied by a couple of glasses of wine it was most agreeable.

Early start with a 9.20am flight to Krakow tomorrow, got to be at the airport 2 hours before flight time.

Just some general photos taken today;

Fun Fact: Pork crackling and potato cakes for breakfast this morning, can't go to far wrong with that as a start to your day.

Number of Steps: 15,766

Observations: Pest is actually pronounced 'Pesht'.  Pauline, I came across the Deloittes office here today, maybe you could ask for a transfer.

Day 11 - Sunday 7 April 2019 - Vienna

Another beautiful spring day, really pleased I brought a new coat and cold weather gear for this trip.

Today I decided to do the free walking tour as recommended by Lonely Planet.  The tour was led by a delightful young Hungarian girl by the name of Regi.  She is a uni student studying international politics.  We visited a number of the interesting sites on both the Buda and Pest sides of the Danube.  These tours are promoted as free.  The way it works is that at the end of the tour you pay the guide what you think it is worth, technically you could walk away without paying anything although I doubt that many would.

Our tour guide, Regi

Neither a castle or a mountain, but they call it castle mountain

Parliament across the Danube

Hungarian soldier guarding something

Fisherman's bastion, guarding the Danube

We went up the stairs!

During the tour Regi mentioned the famous Hungarian soccer (football) team of the 1950's.  I told her that I came from Melbourne Australia and that we had the Olympic games there in 1956.  As soon as I told her that she immediately said that she knew of the 'blood in the water' water polo match between Hungary and Russia at the Olympics.  She said that the Hungarian water polo players from the 1956 olympics are still national heroes in Hungary and there have been many books written about them and movies and documentaries made about them.

As a bit of background to this.  Russia occupied Hungary at the end of the 2nd WW and in 1956 there was an uprising in Hungary against the Russian occupiers, this uprising was brutally put down by the Russians with the loss of many Hungarian lives.  So you can imagine the feelings of the Hungarian water polo players when they came up against the Russians at the Melbourne olympics.

I realised today that I haven't had much of a whinge about anything, well, cobblestones are still giving me the irrits, there are lots of touts around the town flogging various touristy things but they are more an irritation than anything else, but so far nothing serious to complain about.

For dinner tonight I went to a 'traditional' Hungarian restaurant and taking Flashy's advice on board that I have been eating too much pork I had roast duck, with potato rosti and a mountain of red cabbage, and it was all delicious.  (I asked the waiter if the duck was wild, he responded 'well he wasn't very happy when he was put in a hot oven sir', crikey we laughed).

Anyway, at this particular restaurant was a traditional 'gypsy' orchestra, 2 violinists, a cello and a bloke playing a stringed instrument that he hit with little hammers.  The lead violinist wandered around the restaurant playing at the various tables and asking for requests.  He asked me if I had any requests and I said yes, go away!  He asked where I was from and I told him Australia, he went back to the orchestra and they started playing, you guessed it, Waltzing Matilda.  They had the tune right but weren't too good with the words.  After wiping away a sentimental tear and thanking them profusely (and buying a gypsy music CD) I headed off into the night and back to my hotel.

Fun facts:  1) I reckon that I have taken more photos here than I have taken in any other European city.

2) Waltzing matilda is not played in waltz time, as some of the Europeans pointed out to me last night.

Number of Steps: 10,713 at 4.09 pm.  About 6,000 of these steps were going up the hill to the palace precinct and coming back down again.  Do I hear you say, 'Graeme, how are your dodgy knees and ankles holding up'? Thank you concerned reader for asking but they are holding up OK.  

Observations: Lots of ladies and gentlemen in town for bucks and hens parties.  Cheap airfares have ruined Europe.

Days 9 and 10 - 05 April 2019 Sarajevo to Budapest and 06 April 2019  Budapest

I have decided to combine Friday's and Saturday's blog as Friday was a disaster and doesn't deserve a mention of its own.

Lets get Friday out of the way.  First of all my flight from Sarajevo to Vienna was delayed by an hour meaning I missed my connecting flight from Vienna to Budapest, which meant I arrived at my hotel at Budapest at 11.00pm instead of 6.00pm.  No worries I thought, quick check in quick unpack and still time for a beer in the bar, but oh no, my lock on my suitcase was jammed shut and I couldn't open it.  I took my still fully packed suitcase down to reception and there the nice young night shift guy, the security guy and myself tackled the lock with knifes, scissors and other implements of mass destruction until we forced it open, but stuffing the lock in the meantime, which means buying a new suitcase here in Budapest.  When you have got some time to spare ask me about my adventures at Vienna airport.

Anyway, on to Saturday, breakfast in the hotel, again a mixture of cooked breakfast and European cold cuts, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, pickled herrings and some things that I couldn't quite identify.  Suitably fortified I set forth to visit the tourist highlights of Budapest and to keep an eye out for a new suitcase in the process.

My hotel is on the Vaci U which is one of the premier shopping streets in Budapest, it is also very touristy with lots of souvenir shops and bars and restaurants.  Unlike Melbourne's pedestrian precincts it is actually traffic free.  At one end of this street is the big market that appears in all the travel shows about Budapest, it is massive and extremely busy with both tourists and locals.  It is mainly a meat, produce and fruit and vegie market, but great to walk around.  I was extremely disappointed with the lack of free samples.

Goose Liver anyone?

I had a tour of the Parliament building booked for 3.30pm, which I had booked some time ago.  So I decided that I would walk there taking in some of the touristy sites along the way and include some lunch in there somewhere as well.  Like so many of these European cities Budapest is a very walkable city and there is always something to look at. 

Buda from Pest across the Danube

Lunch anyone?

The Hungarian Parliament building is massive and very ornate, as the tour guide explained it was built when Hungary was part of a large and important European empire, that is not the case today.  (As I said under my breath, that is what happens when you lose wars that you start).

After the tour I decided that I would walk back along the Danube to my hotel.  This took me past the 'shoes' Jewish memorial on the banks of the river.  During the 2nd WW the Hungarian government were supportive of Germany's plan to rid Europe of its Jews.  So the Hungarians rounded up its Jews and sent them to the concentration camps, however some they shot on the banks of the Danube, they then dumped the bodies in the river, the only remains were their shoes on the bank of the river.  As a memorial these shoes have been preserved in metal and remain on the bank of the river.

On a lighter note, further along the river was busker playing water filled glasses like an xylophone and he was very good as well.

I am typing this in the hotel bar over a couple of beers so please forgive any spelling, grammar, history and continuity errors. 

I had dinner tonight in a really nice restaurant, one with table cloths and all.  I had a pork dish that in the English menu translated as 'rustic pig', it tasted far better than it's description, this was accompanied by a rather cheeky local merlot.  I also chatted to about 11.00 with an Irish couple sitting next to me, initially about Brexit but then about all manner of things, nice couple similar age to me and semi retired from the Republic of Ireland.

Then walking back to my hotel I was propositioned (twice), so all in all a very nice day in Budapest.

Fun Facts: You can get a suitcase open with a pair of scissors and a blunt knife.

Step Count: Friday 5,507, most of which were in the bowels of Vienna airport; Saturday 15,423 as at 5.30pm in the bar of the Budapest Mercure,

Observations: Budapest is actually made up of two cities, Buda on the western bank of the Danube and Pest on the eastern bank of the Danube.

Day 8 - Thursday 04 April 2019 Sarajevo

After a leisurely breakfast and dropping off some laundry at hotel reception I wandered down to the tour office to join my Times of Misfortune tour.  This tour was primarily about the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 until 1995.  Domir was our tour guide and he had been a police officer during the siege.  Domir is a Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and although it was obvious where his sympathies lay he presented a balanced view of the conflict.

The circumstances surrounding the siege are difficult to explain in a few words and don't think that I have a complete grasp anyway.  The whole thing came about as a result of the collapse of Yugoslavia and the component countries trying to go their own way.  This resulted in a resurrection of the ethnic tensions that the old Yugoslavia kept a bit of a lid on.  These ethnic tensions resulted in a number of atrocities committed by all sides in the name of ethnic cleansing.

Anyway to cut a long story short this ethnic cleansing ended up with the Serbians (orthodox) laying siege to Bosnian Sarajevo (primarily Muslim).  Did I mention that there is a religious element to all this as well.  Sarajevo sits in a river valley and is surrounded by high ground pretty much all around.  The Serbians held the high ground and located their artillery, mortars and snipers on this high ground.

View of the city

The siege lasted for 1,425 days and 11,541 people were killed.  The city was under constant artillery and mortar attack, some of it random some of it aimed.  About 250,000to 300,000 people lived in the city during the siege and the only source of supply was through the airport that was controlled by the UN.  The UN and the airport could only provide a minimal amount of humanitarian goods to the city, around 200 grams per person per day. During the siege there was no electricity or running water, water was supplied from the brewery which had access to water from some deep wells.  I have attached a photo of a signboard showing a map of the siege and providing some details.

Remember this was all happening in a European city in the late 20th century!

Many of the buildings in the city still carry the scars of this fighting.  Some spots are marked where mortar shells fell, particularly in one of the markets where 10s of people were killed by a random attack.

Typical building in central Sarajevo

Same building showing shrapnel damage from the siege

One of the sites we visited on the tour was the tunnel under the airport.  One of the only gaps in the Serbian siege lines was at the airport, but this was controlled by the UN.  The Bosnians came up with the idea of digging a tunnel under the airport runway, so over a period of 4 months they dug a 800 metre tunnel under the runway.  This tunnel is a metre wide and 1.6 metres high.  We walked through a 25 metre section of it, I only banged my head about 5 times.  Impossible to imagine people making numerous trips through this tunnel carrying heavy loads.  As time went by they ran a small pipe to pump some diesel through for the hospital generators and a cable for some electricity and even some primitive rails so they could move some supplies on makeshift hand carts.

Some detail of the siege

The tunnel

The siege ended with the Bill Clinton brokered Dayton agreement, our guide was grateful that this agreement stopped the siege and the fighting however he was critical of the terms of the agreement that has made Bosnia difficult to govern and for the economy to develop.  This is something that I will need to investigate further at some time.

Fun Facts:  The Sarajevoeans are very very proud that they hosted the the 1984 winter olympics and see this as almost a counterpoint to the barbarity of the siege.

Step Count: 7,347

Observations:  Corruption is rife and is holding back economic development, international businesses are loath to invest until the corruption and nepotism is brought under control.  Our guide told us that as he had been a police officer during the war he was offered a job with the post office (which would have been a very good job here), however there was one catch, it was going to cost him E10,000 up front, he declined and borrowed some money to buy a van for tours etc.