2015.06.01 – Trip to Poland Part1
Because it was a long weekend we decided to visit beautiful Poland, more exactly to beautiful Krakow.
This was our itinerary for the way there:
We stopped for the night in Košice, Slovakia and then continue the next day.
Košice, Slovakia
I have to admit I’ve heard about this city but I didn’t know any details. It really impressed me and I might go back there some time.
By Ioana Cis
Katowice is the largest city in the Eastern Slovakia and was the European Cultural Capital along with Marseille, France. The center of the city is build in a dramatic Gothic style combine with Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau, with Slovakia’s largest church in the middle of it all: the St. Elisabeth Cathedral. The long main street is rimmed with aristocratic palaces, Catholic churches and private houses, it is a pedestrian street filled with boutiques, caffes, restaurants and pubs, it’s where it all happenes in the summer. The only thing that clouds the city are the blocks build in the communist era, enormous and arranged in a domino like position.
Being one of the largest city in Slovakia and the second University center there are a lot of things happening here: film and music festivals, theatre and other out-door events. You can go rafting in the region, hot air balloon travelling, biking and a lot of all other things.
We were only there a night but I can say that the city really attracted me. probably because it is close to home and reminds me of most of the cities in Transylvania. There are a lot of places to crash and for all kind of budgets. We stayed at Hostel Barno a pretty cheap place, 15 euros a nigh. I have to say I have seen other much more better Hostels but we were on the clock and just picked up the cheapest one and it’s not that far from the city center, 10 minutes of walking.
The way to Krakow
The next day we maid our way to Poland. We relayed on our GPS, which we named Doina, don’t ask why, it was just the first name that passed our mind then. We kind of made it a longger trip and passed through the Tatra mountains, that are absolutly beautiful. Take a look at some of these images:
And yes. This is the birth place of Tratatea. It’s a great place for outdoors activities, all the resorts, as we saw were connected by bycicle roads and the scenary is just breathtaking. Plus it is pretty cheep.
Learn more:
Kosice: wiki, slovak-republic.org, visitKosice.eu
Tatra Mountains: wiki, Krakow-info, discoverzakopane.com, poland.travel, zakopane, travel, Tatra Mountains National Parc ;
The Mocanița from Vaser Valley
Summer of 2013 (uau, it’s been such a long time!!?) ended with a trip to Maramureș, we tried to visit moast of the historical places and the first Ițm going to talk about is going to be Vișeul de Sus, here you go on a time travel to the past, on the Mocanița forest railway train.
Deep into the mountain forests of Maramures there is a small town, named Vișeul de Sus where small forest trains still live and travel along the Vaser Vally.
The track from Valea Vaserului is the only forest track in Europe that still works for its original purpose and turist purposes as well. It has been working since 1932, when it was used exclusively to transport wood from the hard-to-reach areas in the mountains. It is famous for being the last true forest track that works on steam. According to the official history it was built on Austro-Hungarian gauge of 760 mm. The track runs alongside the Vaser river with lots of curves, several tunnels and bridges for 56 km deep into the wilderness without any villages or roads but with bears and wolfs.
At the beginning of the 18th century the area was inhabited by german speaking settlers, they explored the forests and harvested the timber, sending the logs downstream of the Vaser river. When the railway was build it was a very big progress for the area. The purpose of the small gouge was to make it easy for the trains to take the curves and to actually make it possible for smaller trains to pull empty logging waggons up the mountain and to let the heavily loaded trains to roll down helped by gravity.
Even if after 1945 forest roads began to replace forest rail roads in Europe in Romania there were built even more. In 1970 the State Forest Administration operated over 3000 of tracks. In 1986 new forestry steam locomotives were built in Romania, and in 1989 there were 15 railways operating tantalizing 1000 km. After 1990 the economic changes had a devastating effect on the Forestry industry leading to the collapse of almost all of the operating railways, most of the trains with their wagons were sold or scrapped and the tracks were abandoned. Fortunately one of them survived, The Mocanița from the Vaser Valley.
From 2003 the railway is being managed by a private corporation “R.G. Holtz Ltd”, which holds the depot, most of the locomotives and the wagons, the railway is still state-owned along with the forest in the valley. Since 2000 the railway has been receiving help from abroad, from Switzerland to be exact from the “Hilfe für die Wassertalbahn” (“Help for the Vaser Valley Railway”). The Swiss helped with the restoration of some disused locomotives the porches of some passenger wagons, the refurbish and restoration of the historic train station. From 2005 regular passenger trains hauled by steam locos have been in operation for tourists and since 2007 the Vaser Valley has been under European protection as part of the Maramureș Nature Park.
ShoboTrip Part4 – English tour in 5 minutes
Sinaia, ziua a doua…După ce în seara precedentă au venit comandaţii de la Tg. Mureş şi au încercat să ne organizeze, fără pre mult succes însă, am decis totuşi de comun acord să mergem toţi la Castelul Peleş şi să profităm de reducerea considerabilă de studenţi, aşa că iată-ne la coadă la Peleş. Am atâtea lucruri să spun despre Peleşu ăsta, şi nu tocmai minunate…sper să nu iasă o varză totală.
Shobo Trip Part3 – Cucerirea Bucegilor 1.0
Hmm, după mine sunt cei mai imblânziţi munţi, dacă pot să spun aşa şi printre cei mai accesibili. Dar să o iau de la început. De cum am ajuns la Hotel Regina ne-am impus nişte obiective pe care trebuia să le atingem, adică cel mai inalt vârf al Bucegilor, Omul, Caraiman, Babe+Sfinx, Peştera, Lacul Bolboci, Canionul şapte scări, Castelul Peleş. Şi acum, întrebarea este: Cât am reuşit să facem? Veţi afla. Aşa, am făcut noi lista asta destul de lungă pentru cele 5 zile cât am stat la Sinaia, mai ales că se anunţau ploi în fiecare zi. Şi acum o altă întrebare, cum le împărţim pe toate astea? Cât mergem pe jos? Cât cu telecabina? Când circulă telecabina? Asta a fost întrebarea cheie…am întrebat în trei locuri şi am avut trei răspunsuri diferite. Defapt răspunsul este următorul: Atât telecabina din Sinaia cât şi cea din Buşteni sunt în revizie marţi până la ora 12, deci cei care vreţi să faceţi excursii mai lungi pe munte ar trebui să le planificaţi în altă zi; deasemenea luni, telecabina din Sinaia circulă începând de la 10.30, nu 8.30 cum e normal. Ne decisesem ca în prima zi să facem un traseu mai lejer, aşa de încălzire… Cota 2000 – Babele – Peştera. Planurile sunt făcute, urcăm cu telegongdola până la cota 1400 şi de acolo cu telecabina până la 2000, de acolo Dumnezeu cu mila:P
Shobo Trip – Part2, Tabără regală
Sinaia, capitala de vacanţă a regelui, Sinaia, Hotel Regina, totul are legătură cu scurta istorie a familie regale “române”. Degeaba, muntele e munte. Nu prea ai ce face în nopţile răcoroase (şi aici mă refer în comparaţie cu litoralul, căci majoritatea merg la mare pentru nopţile albe), dar zilele ti le poţi planifica după cum te taie capul. Poţi să mergi în multe locuri, să vezi o sumedenie de lucruri, iar regiunea Munţilor Bucegi este perfectă pentru aşa ceva, nu este nici foarte izolată, dar nici prea aglomerată, ca în staţiunile de pe litoral.
Shobo Trip – part 0
De unde numele de Shobo trip? Nu mă întebaţi, nu eu am venit cu ideea ci Any, ea va trebui să ne lumineze… Ce făcurăm? Ne-am luat rucsacii în spinare(alţii ar spune casa) şi am pornit sa vedem şi noi o mică parte din ţărişoara noastră.
Am călătorit cu tot ce se putea (autocar, microbus, tren, maşină barcă şi navă, mai lipsea un elicopter sau un avion şi colecţia era completă, a da am uitat să precizez telecabină). Am pornit dintr-un colţ al ţării, Satu Mare şi am ajuns în cel opus, Sf. Gheorghe, Tulcea…un total de apoximativ 2000 de km, impresionant nu? dar aştia au fost dus-întors.
Cât a durat toată nebunia? 2 săptămâni…cât a costat? o să vă spun la sfârşit când închei bilanţul. De unde ne-a venit ideea… pe parcurs, totul a pornit de la taberele studenţeşti şi a continuat cu idei proprii, hai să mergem acolo, hai să trecem pe dincolo ş.a.m.d.
Cu ce ne-am confruntat pe drum şi ce am văzut, ce ne-a călcat pe nervi, oamenii pe care i-am cunoscut, voi povesti despre tot în postări viitoare însoţite de o sumedenie de poze şi informaţii mai mult sau mai puţin plăcute.
Mai multe poze aici:
anca H. PhotoBlog 