Thumbs Up - Warsova, Krakow and Auswitch

Wednesday 25th

We woke up quite early because of the noice coming from outside. There was some construction work going on in the neighbourhood. After having breakfast and making some snacks for the road, we checked for couches in Krakow and sent a new request to a film producer living there. He had a relaxed profile and a few referenses.

Jan game back from biking practise and Aga left for work. We said our goodbyes to Aga. We started talking about what stuff we still need for our trip. Jan helped us greatly with getting a proper camping matress. He knew the owner of one shop in Warsova and called there at front to let them know that we are coming.

Jan and Matylda gave us a lift to a better place to start hitchhiking than at the center of Ostroda. We went to a Mc Donalds on the side of E77 towards Warsova. Sad goodbyes later and after "threathening" to come back to Jan and Aga we walked to the start of the turning lane. Just after I got a picture of us we got picked up. Jan and Matylda had just finished their icecreams and were waving goodbye as we left. :)



Onwards to Warsova

Sebastian a truck driver was ready to stop his not so properly working truck and take us in. He was going from Ostroda to 100km near Warsova carrying paper rolls 23 000kg. That immediately reminded me of the paper truck accident in Finland. Hope the cargo is attached properly. It seemed to be as we were going 100km/h and suddenly breaking to 30 for the road costruction workers. There was a lot of construction going on on the road to Warsova.


We listened to Polish rap and talked a bit about the routes he drives. He mostly stays in Poland. He didn't speak good english and our Polish hadn't still started to catch on. We drove through the countryside passing by a few autorepairshops in the middle of nowhere. The sceneries, houses, autorepairshops and farms reminded me a bit of our Russia trip last spring with my family to the part of Karjala that was a part of Finland before second world war. Though in Russia the houses and roads were in a worse condition.


Sebastian left us in a gasstation from where we were able to continue hitchhiking. It was funny that we almost didn't have time to put our backbags on the road when one car took us again. He was also a Polish man, but unfortunately we lost his name. :(


Allthough he was helpfull and ready to take us near the sportshop that Jan had recommended. (The sportshop was an import export company and had nice prices but not a proper shop. We wanted to buy sleeping matresses for our trip and then get something to eat.


I think that the Warsova visit was profitable because we got the matresses for a good price and by accident found an awesome Italian restaurant. The food was something that I can't describe, fresh (but this time fried) meat, chicken and pork, vegetables and salty potatoes.

Mmmm. :P

And for desert we ordered Americanos (in here it's not obvious that you get good coffee, sometimes it's instant or just bad). The chef was so lovely, he came by hisself to ask is everything okay and is the food tasty. He also made for us some Italian dessert, for free.


Thank you very much Daniel Popis and the restaurant la Diavola! (If you ever happen to come to Warsova do go Plotka 17 and on the other side of the street you will see the Italian restaurant)


I have never got such a good service. It's so shame that we are not living in Warsova (I would eat there more often than kebab in Finland). I'm afraid that in Italy the food isn't that good, or cheap.

With our stomachs full again we walked like 5km to the road that looked busy and a good place to HH (there were the trafficlights). One Germanian motorcycklist gave us few advise to find the way in there, and one guy took us to a better road to get a lift.


We stood near the Mc Donalds, Mika was rocking our Finnishflag like in the formularaces. I was responsible for the thumb. Apparently, one white car wanted to cheat us. It stopped near by us, but when we started to run towards it it just accelereted and turned back to the road. Hopefully soon after that incident a hippievan desided to take us.


They told us to having saw our Finnishflag and then thought that yeah they have to take us even they are not going the whole way to Krakow. And ofcourse they wanted to save us from the rain.


The girls were from Sweden and the Rastaguy didn't remember from where he came from. The van was a home of one of the girls, and it looked just like I have seen in the movies. We talked for example about going to school and not going to school, how it's so hard to live with routines or how it's so easy. The hippieguy smoked some weed and I started to be afraid of the speed of the van. (Hippie guy was also translating some religious book to one of the girls while smoking another joint. :) I am not judging them for their ways)



We dropped out at a gasstation, about 100km before Krakow. They were thinking of which route their are going to take and we were thinking of where are we going to put up our tent.



So, now we had the chance to test the new sleepingmatresses.

It's so wonderfull in here without mosquitoes or extremely cold wheather.
On the other hand it's so fucking hot, that I can't go and sleep beside Mika as I'm already so ugly sweating, so does he.


Thursday 26th


I slept quite well, but in the morning I really needed the shower. Being almost sure that we wouldn't have the time to find any real shower, I desided to go to the toilet of the gasstation. Mika was a bit embarrased as I managed to make a small lake on the floor and the employee of the station had to go and clean it. (i actually told her earlier that "shower in a toilet" is what I did many times before but I usually clean up after myself)

We ate a small breakfast and wondered where should we go next. I think that we were kind of lost again, because many people came and started to speak Polish and they didn't stop helping even we said in english we can't speak polish. But we understood them (I have developed my bodylanguage) and finally one of the helper showed us to a bus to a better road to lift.



How smart that in the bus I asked "Should we buy the tickets or are we going to act like stupid Finns if the inspector comes and asks our tickets?" Ofcourse one inspector came in immediately on the next stop and started to ask our tickets. Mika got good instructions how to buy tickets in Poland and luckily we didn't have to pay any fines.

Hitchhiking from Kielce to Krakow



I should know, that if a car marked Audi stops and is ready to take us in we should say in a friendly way that we are sorry, but we can't come in. But this time it was too hot in the outside and it was Audi A5 or some sportmodel, aircondition and everything.

The owner of the car was a doctor who was on the way home, when suddenly his car started to complain about the low battery. I remembered that he said it has never done anything like that before, and it must be because of us. As you might quess, we didn't get even near to Krakow with that car. He wasn't ready to try HH so he had to stay in a gasstation to wait for a ride.


For us the carbreakage was like a destiny (dumb luck) as we found a guy, or the guy found us, who was going almost straight to Oŝwiecim, the city where the museum Auswitch-Birkenau is.

Wonderfull I thought because now we didn't have to HH all the day. Before leaving he ate his own food and we ordered some Polish soop and "Finnish" peesoup to take away. I thought that Mika ordered also one Kalakukko (local Finnishfood from Kuopio) when I got one bigbig bread. But it was like a plate for the soup.


His name was Obrocjevits Olkusz and he was working at somekind of art business. We talked about many castles in the area and he told living in the mountains near Krakow.



We visited in Auswitch-Birkenau with a little hurry. Few times I got so scared when I saw some rooms I couldn't go in without Mika's hand. I can't describe the place but it's worth of seeing. (Well I can add that it is definately something that makes you understand the horrific events around The Second World War)







When we were leaving Auswitch we saw some Finnish people, who noticed that we are also from Finland. They noticed us because we were arguing a bit in Finnish. Just a bit. The reason for the argument was so stupid that I'm not going to write it here. They were going back to Krakow and eventhough we tried to imply that we are maybe trying to HH back to Krakow, they didn't get that. What a surprise. (Actually I implied twice about getting a ride with them)

So, another night in a tent. Luckily the town was a greeny one, a lot of trees and a clean river called Sova. (The river was actually according to some locals a dirty one. But I asked a few times and finally when I asked on the morning from a local family biking there they told me its really good to swim and they go there..)

We were looking for the internet at the Old town, but it was hard again as we didn't want to eat in KLF some greasy chicken. So we ate quickly, or atleast tried to eat quickly in a somekind of cafe. We had to wait about 40 minutes for one pizza and one salad.



Finally we found the internet, got some coffee and water. I don't know how I managed to order hot water, but I think I was already sleeping.



"Two big elefants were marching here, dark road forward to find a place for the tent!", and so they found the footballfield and put up a tent.


Againg sleeping dirty in the tent, good night. Second day without a shower for me(Mika) :)

Onwards to Ostroda, 1st Thumbs Up.

24.7.2012 12:00
After having said goodbye to Bartosz we went to shop some fruits for our trip.

Check the sleepingbag. :'D

We took also an empty box of fruits where we wrote "Ostroda and E77", name of the town and road we were going to try to hitchhike. We found quite a good place for HH and checked many times that the road was really the right one. I wanted to be the first one with my finger up. :)


I was sure that we would have to wait some hours before getting the ride. (Actually she was a bit stressed that are we on a good spot, is my thumb up enough etc. :P )

Well suddenly we ended up letting a car wait for us. (A good style for a HHer) The car had stopped on the side of the road and we didn't notice it first as I was putting some suncream on Mika's shoulders.

The first ride on this trip was a nice couple from Poland, Maria and Jurek. They were just starting their holidays and heading towars Warsova. Even their navigator didn't know where were we, because the road was brand new. Or they had fixed the road because of the European football championships.


Of to Mika
We passed the river Vilnus and got to the countyside of Poland. it suddenly reminded me a bit of Pohjanmaa in Finland.


They were really nice and took us to Ostroda, just next to the Wakeboarding centre. I got really excited to see the center and could see that Janina was excited also. We went to grab a cup of coffee at a nearby restaurant.


Jan texted us that he could meet us in about 20 minutes next to the wakegboarding place. We responded that we are having coffee nearby and agreed to meet on the pier next to us. He came on his bike, with Matylda, his daughter in the charriot on the back. At first Matylda didn't seem to remember me. But surpricingly a bit later she remembered that I am the guy who had hello kitty backpack. :) Jan, Aga and Matylda had been to my place in Turku a couple of years back.

Jan suggested that we go by Agas workplace to meet her and say hi. She is a Vetenarian and has opened her own clinic with two friends a couple months ago. It was nearby and there was a few animals inside. We said hi, Aga went back to work and we continued towards their flat.

Jan told us he had some practise to do today evening and asked what we wanted to do. Well as we like to practise also and told that to him, he got the idea of going to a nice forest lake for open water training. Janina was clearly excited about practise and just said that luckily she took her swimming goggles with her. We just quickly unpacked the swimming gear and grabbed some fruits to take with us. Then we were ready to head out. We took Jan's car from the lot and headed towards Dobre Miasto where the forest lakes were.


Over there we parked on the side of the road a kilometer from the lake and walked a forest road to the lake. Really nice forest not so different from the finnish ones clean and beautiful. Matylda collected some flowers on the way.


We tried to find a place where it wouldn't be too deep for Matylda to swim but couldn't find a better place than the one Jan usually used. So we walked back there.


Jan and Janina went first to swim.


I stayed with Matylda on the shore water. She got cold after a while so we got up and started ahead with the fruits we had taken with us.


They did a couple of there and back trips to the other side of the lake and then it was my time. Well I swam there freestyle and back brestswimming, and that was enough for me. I haven't practised swimming as much as Janina or Jan so I still have trouble keeping my stance. My legs drop and are mostly useless. Also I feel that eventhough I swim slow and breath a long time I cant get enough oxygen for longer swimming trips. I can do a fast 50 or maybe a Hundred. But the longer I swim the more I am out of breath. I just need to practice more and maybe get a few pointers from the pros. Well I tried to hitchhike a swimming ride also. But Janina didn't take me.


We enjoyed some snacks by the water. The water was so clear that when we were swimming you could see the sunlight rays towards the black bottom. Also on the shore we could see what we call Ahven in Finnish.


We headed back to the flat as Aga was also getting out of work after a short moment. Jan prepared us some of his homemade "quickdinner" from the freezer. It was cheese and meat inside a makaroni.

We promised to look for Matylda for a moment. Jan went on for some running practice and Aga was still working. She was adorable we playd with formingwax(muovailuvaha?)


We went early to sleep, so we probably could have got early up also. For Tuesday we had a plan to go wakeboarding.

Tuesday 24th

The wakeboarding didn't go as well as I thought. It was really hard to get on the board and I think the biggest reason wasn't that the board was too big for me. I just hadn't still got used to it. After too many times of tries, we desided to take a little brake and go somewhere to eat, then come back and try again.(Actually it was like five tries) On a way to eat we saw Jan and Matylda playing in a garden. Jan asked if we wanted to go sailing that evening, not only wakeboard the hole day. I almost started to yell like the kids over me like "Yes!". Mika wasn't so excited, I think. (I love sailing, but not when it means that Janina will get out of her promice to try as long as it takes to make a full lap)

We changed our plan and didn't go to eat. I promised to try the wakeboarding one time again, and afterwards I realized that it was a good decision as I managed to stood up on the board. I felt quickly because the board was still too big for me, but it was fun! Mika had still some time to go before we had to leave, and I went to take some sun like the other girlfriends.



The sailing experience was a bit different than I thought. Maybe it's because I'm so fond of swimming and Jan provoked me a bit. And it wasn't even that windy. So, I fixed my bikini with my shoelaces, because I had lost the rope while wakeboarding. Then I just jumped in the water, like Jan and the other guy had already done with an intention to swim. Well, I could have asked is it a long way to swim, but how surpricingly I didn't. (Doesn't think, just does first and thinks later. That is Janina, a bit crazy as I like her)


I got a little bit scared when I didn't see Jan anywhere or the sailingboat where Mika was happily sitting. He might have tought that now he would get rid of me, but it was ok for me to swim. Even if I once got a really bad panic because some fish came and tried to bite me in the middle of that lake. After that I started to see killersharks in the water so I had to change my swimming style to the frog. I was wondering do I have to ask a ride for the other boatist. But when one sailingboat came next to me I just started to joking that I'm from Finland, but yeah I didn't come here by swimming and my friends should be somewhere over here, maybe waiting me. (Really I believe she hitchhiked to a boat for some part of the swimming we just didn't see it as we were so much in front)



Finally I found the boat and got in. Mika didn't believe that the fish harrashed me and the other quys conforted that here shouldn't be any pirates. (Actually I swam towards her just to be sure she is okay and we met on water, clad to see she was okay, and I have to add thanks all of you for a really nice boat trip!)

Later that evening we put the chicken with some vegetables in the oven, ate and talked together.


Again we were really tired, maybe it's the lake climate this time.

Monday 23th, Waking up after the first night of CS

When the morning came Janina was more of a sleepyhead than me. I woke up a few minutes earlier and was listening to Bartosz'es children and wife get ready to head out. We also decided to get up to be able to give the children a little something we brought from Finland.

Bartosz started to prepare an amazing breakfast for us. Coffee, tea, local ryi bread, our Finnish Ryi bread a couple of different Polish dishes. A soup and a sour cabbage, kind of a homecheese fresh ham etc. He really knew what a HHrs breakfast needs to be.


That all eaten we could have HHed all the way to Italy.

Joan and Janina found a common language. Catalan is near french so they could communicate better. All together we were talking about everything from the economic situation to travelling equipment with five languages. Spanish between Joan and Bartosz, Catalan and French with Janina and Joan, some of that Janina translated to me in Finnish. Janina, I and Bartosz talked in English. So a really international breakfast.

At some point Joan got up and went to pack his bag as he needed to get the train out of town soon. We had already put our stuff mostly together before breakfast. So after breakfast we just quickly picked up our stuff and headed out together to be able to see Juan off.

Bartosz had ordered a taxi as Joan was almost late from the train. We threw our bags in and everybody jumped in. After a while of crazy driving we were early in the train station. Joan fooled us about the time his train leaves. Better to be early than late. There was still a huge coal train on the rail where Joan's train should come to.


After the goodbyes we went to the city for some sightseeing. Bartosz helped us find the hot spots before we had to leave. We went through the beautiful streets of Gdansk towards the main church. The second biggest brick church in Europe. Right after Notre Dame. The church had been bombed badly during the second world war. They rebuild it but because they didn't have any original building designs they needed to do it only based on photos.
Thats why the church has a weird corner. The windows from different walls hit each other without any room in between for the window support stucture.


We went inside and eventhough feeling a bit scared of other building flaws ;) we went up the church tower.


Fourhundred stairs later we were happy that we left our bags down to the portier.

The view was amazing, the tower is the tallest building in the area. 80m to be precise.

We tried to spot all the 26 churches in the center. And all of them are christian so not a wide diversity. Also spotted Bartosz home almost, the harbour and the ruins from second world war.

Heading down was to Janinas opinion harder as the steps were steep and small.


Bartosz showed us also the chapel of kings that is well hidden from the tourists. The door is open but it seems like you are going to somebodys home.


Then we walked through the most beautiful street in Gdansk in Bartosz opinion and we liked it also. Here is the picture.


We headed to Bartosz's workplace for our goodbyes. It was in the same direction as we were headed. Thank you Bartosx for everything and sorry for keeping you from work.