In Poland they engage in the practice of dubbing foriegn telivision shows. I, being no stranger to plonking myself in front of the box have seen this practice in many other countries. Whether it be delighting in Kramer's antics whilst krauking out the Emprorer's own German or taking in the glory of a period drama in Bulgarian I can enjoy a nicely dubbed bit of film. However in Poland Karolina and I have run into a unique phenomena. The Polish use a single person to dub an entire film. For instance after a big day's travel (some of it on the train, details to follow) we assumed the position and readied our self for some Samuel. L. Jackson. Unfortunately the bass rumble of his voice and the smooth rythmic meter of his flawless ebonics was replaced by the serid flow of a singular monotonous Polish gent. Also Sam's screen friends (men and women alike) were all interpreted by the same Polish man. All emotions were removed by the same filter. We could see gun being fired, we could see the poeple scream but only one voice could be heard.
We have been steadily moving since our recouperation in Budapest last week. Our first day's peddling was along the Danube River, a small day which landed us in the city of Vac. Given its proximity to the large city of Budapest I was expecting a Geelong, read as industrial and grotty. To our suprise Vac had a Grand European square, fountains, churches, the whole bit. We stayed in a pension run by a mad Doctor. Within minutes of arriving he a named me the Professor of Sexology and refered to his bottom as ham and the relevenet protuberance as eggs.
Our next day would take us into the mountains and forrest. Our maps have very little in the way of Topographical detail so predicting vertical distances has been difficult for us. The first day we expected to climb roughly 200-300 meters. 800 vertical meteres and about 2 hours later the dirt road we were following stopped. We had gone the wrong way. Cue thunder and rain.
Despite these humble begginings the days that followed were amongst our favorite for the trip. The mountains continued and we crossed the border from Hungary into Slovakia. Almost immidiately the people changed. In Hungary we had to work like dogs to get strangers to smile. An example of this, something that occured frequently, was that someone who may have been smileing when they caught our eye (and our smile) would then change to a frown! We were pumped when this fog of outward melncoly lifted, right at the border. The Slovak's were up for interaction and immidiately the place felt more friendly.
In addition to the friendliness the country is stunning! What we expected from Transylvaia we got in Slovakia. Green forrests, cliffed mountains, many climbs and spectacular natural beauty. Also the Slovakians really respect thier country. The Romanian mountain roads were a constant reminder that the crap we eat in cars is wrapped in heaps of packaging and the gaps in the trees were often used as bins. In Slovakia grass was in vogue. We continued to climb into Slovakia enlivened and invigorated by the environment. After a few hours of this we found ourselves (not without sweat) in a ski resort drinking gluvine! As good a place as any to get a nights rest.
The mountains continued until the border with Poland, the crossing itself being on a pass. And then began the desent, hours of downhill. It is a hugely satisfying feeling to build up potential kinetic energy over many days of uphill riding and then release it all at once. Our desent took us through forrest and past villiages. A tributry streams thundered along next to us and, at least for a while, the road was ours.
Then the terrain flattened out, the roads became extrodinarily three dimensional and the traffic exploded.
The last hour of our first day in Poland had Karolina pulling a wide variety of snapshots. A bit of background. As you can imagine spending large stints of time talking exlusively to one person can give conversations a certain flavour of the insane. Our 'chats' (sessions perhaps?) often see us adopting characters (A Sth African Steve Irwin inspired TV personality who has fallen in love with his camrea man, Gary, is a favorite), inventing songs or just sometimes making noises for hours on end. Each time a truck, or car whizzes by you often tense up. Karolina thinks that if you were to take a photo at this moment it would be hilarious. Hence snap shots. So as I said this road was awful and Karolina pulled a huge range of snap shots. And this awful road led to Osweism, the town where the Nazis established the Aushwitz Concentration camps.
We spent the next day at Aushwitz with a tour guide. I can not do justice to the experience in writing but it would be remiss of me not to acknowelgde it. What struck me hardest was how real the place is, it has not been altered since it was liberated (save for a few exhibits). A plaque stands at the end of the Birkenau camp and it is translated into the languages of every victim of that place (there is also an English translation, though no native English speakers were murdered there) and it says,
Let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity
Where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million
men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe.
Aushwitz-Birkenhaus 1940-1945
The previous night we had done some calculations and realised that it would not be possible for us to reach Sweden without another stint on a train. I say not possible but I mean not enjoyably possible. So we decided to catch a train from Osweism to Warsaw. On this train trip we thought it prudent to book some accomadation. But each call was met with the same answer, 'Sorry we are full'. I later found out that AC/DC were playing and this was one reason why it was difficult! So realising that we would have to wing it we waited to arrive in Warsaw. At 11pm, tired from a weeks riding and a big day we started our search. Nothing in the central district. Nothing in the next district (3kms away). Finally two hours later and 5km away from were we had started three buildings stood as a lasting monument to communism. Each a 'Smart Hotel' each containing about 300 rooms. The first was full. The second was full. The third, one room for one night. We snapped it up and retired to our quaters trying to imagine what state designated jobs some of the previous tennants of the rooms may have had.
The next day came quickly and before long we were homeless again in the big city. Setting course for Lithuania we knew we must travel North East. But having heard whispers of a magical path called EuroVelo (a network of bike paths and bike appropriate roads for touring) we set out with confidence looking for the golden way. The mornings search for the exit was unsuccessful. So we came back to where we had started and pursued another route. Surely this would be better, and it was. White signs with red bikes on brown trees dotted the route. This was living, no cars, we could ride next to each other. Glory be the lit path! And then it stopped. Cut to 8:00 pm. Having travelled 60+ kilomtres, riden all day (only one half an our stop for lunch), 20 hours after we had arrived in Warsaw and ten hours after we had started riding we were back at the train station. Having acquired tickets on the first train travelling NE we knew, for the first time that day that we would escape Warsaw and perhaps get some sleep!
Last nights sleep could not have been better. We are in cushy hotel offering Panna Cotta via room service. Add to this a bit of telly and a breakfast buffet and you can rest assured that your narrators are enjoying catching up on the last few days. Both of us are well fed, have dropped off some laundry and now we will slowly slip into a a relaxed state of toasty apathy which should move swiftly towards coma in the next few hours. It is there, in that mindless numb delirium that I will hopefully understand what the Poles see in that mans anesthetised translations.
Wyświetl większą mapę
Wyświetl większą mapę
The previous night we had done some calculations and realised that it would not be possible for us to reach Sweden without another stint on a train. I say not possible but I mean not enjoyably possible. So we decided to catch a train from Osweism to Warsaw. On this train trip we thought it prudent to book some accomadation. But each call was met with the same answer, 'Sorry we are full'. I later found out that AC/DC were playing and this was one reason why it was difficult! So realising that we would have to wing it we waited to arrive in Warsaw. At 11pm, tired from a weeks riding and a big day we started our search. Nothing in the central district. Nothing in the next district (3kms away). Finally two hours later and 5km away from were we had started three buildings stood as a lasting monument to communism. Each a 'Smart Hotel' each containing about 300 rooms. The first was full. The second was full. The third, one room for one night. We snapped it up and retired to our quaters trying to imagine what state designated jobs some of the previous tennants of the rooms may have had.
Last nights sleep could not have been better. We are in cushy hotel offering Panna Cotta via room service. Add to this a bit of telly and a breakfast buffet and you can rest assured that your narrators are enjoying catching up on the last few days. Both of us are well fed, have dropped off some laundry and now we will slowly slip into a a relaxed state of toasty apathy which should move swiftly towards coma in the next few hours. It is there, in that mindless numb delirium that I will hopefully understand what the Poles see in that mans anesthetised translations.
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