Walked around the city today and spent time setting up my new laptop. My new laptop is in Polish and I went back to the shop today but they mentioned I would have to buy a new windows XP cd in English which is quite expensive.
Originally I was planning to go to Budapest on Wednesday but after my things got stolen, that cost me some time and I have to wait until Friday night for the next bus so I decided to visit Warsaw for the time being.
Walk around the city
Florianksa st.

Cheap Polish food at Carefour

There is special train called Interregio to Warsaw at 6.25pm which cost 40ZL compared to the usual one which cost 107ZL. Warsaw is around 300km away and is the capital of Poland with a population of around 1.7millions.
Waiting for the train

Arrived in Warsaw around 10.10pm.
Got to Hostel Tamka (Tamka St.) by bus 102, unfortunately the hostel doesn’t have any more dorm beds and only have private room. Walked to Hostel Nathan Villa, Pieska St. (40ZL, 10 Euros) which is around a 30 minutes walk and here I am.

Took a guided tour (80ZL)to Auschwitz. It’s around 100 km from Krakow and the trip there took around 1.5 hours.

From 1940 – 1945, around 1.2 to 1.5 millions people were killed. 80% of the people that were sent to Aushwitz were sent to the gas chamber on the first day. Those that were selected to stay at the camp were put to work. There are 3 concentration camps in Auschwitz. We spent 2.5 hours at the first one because it’s better preserved and some of the buildings were converted into museums. However, we weren’t allow to take pictures of the museum.

Arbeit Macht Frei (Work will set you free)

Inside the museums there were some belongings of the prisoners, such as human hair, shoes, bags, the gas tanks in the gas chambers. There were many tourists and I guess everyone felt a deep sense of sadness and shocked at what the Nazi did.
It was snowing and raining, the temperature is around 3C and everyone was shivering so in a way we can feel that the weather was a big blow to the prisoners. I can’t imagine how anyone can survive in this kind of camp.

The other camp is called Auschwitz Bickenau which has 300 baracks and is 20 times bigger. We only spent 30 minutes there since the camp is too big to walk around.

Inside each barack cramped around 400 prisoners.

It’s a cold and snowy day

The weather was snowing pretty heavily in the afternoon.

Finally bought a new laptop after looking around for 2 days. I bought a Asus netbook (1200 ZL, around $400) and then realized that the operating system is in Polish.
Went to a Polish restaurant with some hostel mates.

Tried Pierlogi, a kind of polish food that looks like pasta but it stuffed with ingredients such as meat, mushroom and cheese.

Met up some CS people (Basia and Cassie) at a bar called Singer, in Kazimierz – the former Jewish town which now has many bars. The bar has Singer sewing machine on every table. Kazimierz is at the south part of the old town which has a history of Jewish dwellings before the Nazi came.

The train in from Bratislava to Krakow has many carriages and the carriages split to different destinations at night. I asked 2 person that I am going to Krakow but they gave me the wrong information and I got on the wrong compartment. Got off at Kratowice at 4.30am in the morning and took another train to Krakow arriving at 6.30am.
I tried getting something out from my bag and noticed that it was ransacked. Looked around and noticed shit, my money (150 EUROS and 150-200 dollars), laptop, sunglasses were gone. Luc kily they didn’t take my passport and credit cards.
Went to the police station twice today but the translator wasn’t there and they don’t speak English. So they asked me to come back.
Stayed at Dizzy Daisy hostel (25 ZL, 1 USD ~ 2.8 ZL). Krakow has a population of around a million and it was the old capital of Poland. There are many universities and many young people and tourists here.

Took a free walking tour around the city.

Dorzec Glowny (Train Station)

Rynek Glowny

The cloth hall (the yellow building)

Wavel Castle

Spent time looking around for electronics because my netbook has become a neccessity to me. Went to Media Mart (a place which sells electronics, something like Best Buy in US)

which is at the east side of town. Electronics in Poland are slightly more expensive, I guess electronics in US is the cheapest other than Paraguay.
Then met a CS friend Ewa for coffee at night.

Wy?wietl wi?ksz? map?
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and largest city in Slovakia. It has a population of almost 450,000 and is the administrative, cultural and economic centre of the country. and the country just started using the Euro from Jan 1st this year. The transporation is using the validation system similar to other Balkan countries for trams and buses.

Bratislava

Blue Church

There is a Tesco close to my hostel and loaded up some groceries and food. Bratislava is famous for good mineral water and there are many different types of mineral water.
Walked around the city and met 3 other Malaysians studying in Germany and hung out for the day.

Another Castle

Castle, Danube river, UFO bridge and the communist style buildings across the river.

President Palaces.

There isn’t much to see in Bratislava and the old town is quite small.
Visited Aupark which is the biggest mall there.

Took a bus to Petržalka which has one the of largest communist style buildings.

At The Music Lounge.

Took the 10.55pm bus to Krakow (44.2 Euros, 7.5 hours ride)

Took a morning train to Vienna at 8.05am (29 Euros, 6 hours, switched train at Maribor). I walked from Ayda place and the walk + run took me almost 40 mins, I almost missed the train by just a minute.

Train Station

This was my second time to Vienna. Vienna is quite pretty with some very nice looking buildings and architecture. Vienna’s downtown area is a UNESCO world heritage site and has a population of 1.7 millions people. Vienna is very touristy and things are quite expensive here.

Karlskirche (St.Charles Cathedral)

Kärntner Straße (a shopping avenue)

Stephansdom (Gothic style building)

Walked around Vienna for around 4 hours with my backpack. This is the longest I have walked with full gear on.
Opera House

Took an evening bus 7pm from Vienna to Bratislava (7.7 Euro).

Vienna and Bratislava are the closest capital in the world, around 80 km apart. The bus (Slovakline) is cheaper than the train which cost 14 Euros and took 1.5 hours.

Wy?wietl wi?ksz? map?
Arrived at Bratislava and found my way to Patio Hostel. I remembered they advertised the price on the web for 8 Euros but walk in price is 15 Euros. The receptionist is quite nice to borrow me the internet to do a reservation before checking in.

To readers out there, I am sorry I haven’t been updating the blog because I have been moving to different countries daily and don’t have time to write stuffs so far. I will update soon

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Took the 9am train to Ljubljana. (90 Krona, around 18 Euros, 2.5 hours). Got a last minute replied by Ayda so I did another couch surf there.
Ljubljana is a small city with around 250,000 people. Slovenia is a small country with just 2 millions people and many of those are immigrants from the balkans.

Horse Burger is popular in Ljubljana (with horse meat,4 Euro)

My host and her slovenian co workers

By the river

View from the castle

Went for coffee with Ayda and Spela

Couch

Next day,

Since the normal ticket from Ljubljana to Vienna is around 60 Euros, I decided to try my luck on hitch hiking. Ayda dropped me at a highway, after spending some time standing a bus driver advised me to try to hitch hike at another location called Smelt. Took bus 7 and 8 there. After waited for almost 3 hours, I decided that today is not my day and went back to the train station and got a special ticket for tomorrow morning.
Unsucessful attempt to hitch hike to Vienna

Took an overnight train from Sarajevo to Zagreb. Zeljko is very nice to host me.

With Zeljko

Couch

Both Croatia and Serbia claim that Nicola Tesla is one of their own
Nicola Tesla

Statue of Ban Jelacic on a horse

Austro-Hungarian styled Jelacic Square (Trg Bana Jelacica) is the busy heart of Zagreb.

Met up with Ana and Mirna in the afternoon. Ana drove me with her scooter to the New Zagreb and then had dinner with Zeljko.

Took an overnight bus from Belgrade to Sarajevo (10.25pm – 5.30am, 20 Euros). I was late and have to catch the bus after the bus left the platform.

Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia with a population of 500,000. There is another capital called Banja Luka which is the capital of Republika Srpska. Republika is kind of like a Serb territory inside Bosnia.

Sarajevo is one of the most historically interesting cities in Europe. It is the place where the Western & Eastern Roman Empire split; where the people of the Roman Catholic west, Eastern Orthodox east and the Ottoman south, met, lived and warred

Arrived at the smaller bus station at the west part of the city at 5.30am. Took a bus from the small bus station at New Sarajevo to the main bus/train station in the city.

Got the schedules of train and busses then took tram 1 to the old town. Found a place to store my bag for 5 Euros because I was not sure if I will be staying there for a night yet.

Old town

Chess Player

Met 2 other Chinese guys at a mosque and we hang out together. There are working in Turkey and came for a short break.
The corner beside this bridge is the catalyst for world war I where the Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand was assacinated.

With my new travel mates

Since we covered pretty much the old city by walking, I decided to take the overnight train at 10.25pm to Sarajevo (46.20 Bosnia Mark, around 23 Euros)

The NATO bombing during the Kosovo War in 1999 caused substantial damage to the city. A few bombed buildings are still standing.

Biggest Orthodox Church in the world

The republic square which is just right beside Knez Mihajlova – one of the most popular pedestrian streets in Belgrade

Danube and Sava river cross

Met a lady at the fortress. She told me that she works for the Kuwaiti embassy and mentioned that there is a Malaysian embassy that just opened so I decided to drop by. Met the friendly ambassador, Zalinah at the embassy.
Malaysian Embassy

Karl, Milan (middle) my host and Malwina

Visited the new Belgrade which has blocks and blocks of communist style buildings. In most ex communist countries, the New city usually means the area which the communist built. The road in new Belgrade is wide and spacious. All buildings here look the same. There is a big chinese market there at Block 70. I decided to check it out, but surprisingly it is close on Tuesday. I thought Chinese work everyday. Met a few Chinese guys and they shared some of their experiences. There are many small shops here but the look might be deceiving because they only do wholesale, and the revenue for each day is above a million Serbian pounds.

Old Communist Style buildings in New Belgrade

Chinese Market

Went to the Serbian embassy early today, I was second in line. Got my transit visa (22 Euros) after some questioning.

Decided to visit Belgrade as well since I have the visa now. Got on the 1.10pm (23 Euros) bus to Belgrade. Belgrade is just around 440km away but the bus took 8 hours.
On the border, I saw the immigration officer took my passport to a room and I thought there were some issues with my visa. Later I found out that they canceled the Kosovo stamp on my passport because Serbians still think Kosovo is part of Serbia.

Kosovo stamp annulled.