Discovering Eastern Poland

[kaima]

Perhaps I should label that trying to discover, in between trying to travel by bus and train with only a general idea of how things work, an no knowledge of Polish. In about a week I will leave Vilnius and take a week to wind my way south, with a stop at Białowieski Forest, then on to Slovakia.

International trains no longer seem to function in the former Soviet lands, so busses are the way to go. The good long distance bus system seems to go only to major points, so I may have to go to Warsaw and backtrack. I hate to do that, as I want to save Warsaw for a special trip. For this trip I have to avoid cutting through Belarus, as I have no transit visa. So ideal seems to be Vilnius to Augustow, Bialystok, Bielsk Podlaski, Hajnowka, and finally Białowieża Forest. If that seems complicated, I expect it is, especially since I plan on public transportation all the way.

I am traveling with an Android Tablet, and the Polish tourism and transportation apps seem to have all of the critical details in reading schedules locked up in Polish.

So we will see how I work through this puzzle to get it this last European Primeval Forest.

You will find my route if you search for. Vilnius to Białowieża Forest

[kaima]

So far a bit of research reveals e-podroznik.pl lists a single departure every day, 00:50, arriving in Bialystok at 04:50, and departing at 06:10 to arrive at Hajnowka at 07:39. That is not very nice, as my ambition is to see the countryside, not just travel from place to place or travel in the dark. There is no mention of avoiding Belarus on the route. It is now a necessity, as a transit visa for Americans cost $160!!! For that much I would expect to rent the Presidents daughter. That is an unnecessary insult, but $160 worth of insult.

I have a request in to the trip advisor Polish forum, so I expect them to confirm the terrible travel for this leg. I hope they work some magic and present a better possibility.

[Jaga]

North-eastern part of Poland is the coolest and also divided ethnically. There are some Belarussian living there. This is also the area of beatiful lakes (Augustow).
Referring to Bialowieski National Park, it is the oldest park in Poland and I am not sure I ever been there. It is one of the few places with the ancient medieval jungle and the largest population of bison.

Train system in Poland is usually good, you can usually buy a ticket at the train station, no problem. If buses work for you, go ahead.

[kaima]

Sept 1, 2015 11:45:35 GMT -7 Jaga said:

North-eastern part of Poland is the coolest and also divided ethnically. There are some Belarussian living there. This is also the area of beatiful lakes (Augustow).
Referring to Bialowieski National Park, it is the oldest park in Poland and I am not sure I ever been there. It is one of the few places with the ancient medieval jungle and the largest population of bison.

Train system in Poland is usually good, you can usually buy a ticket at the train station, no problem. If buses work for you, go ahead.

Once I get to Poland I expect little trouble. It is getting from Vilnius that seems to pose the problem, and may still. Nothing says the bus does not go through Belarus, and I checked - a transit visa for US costs $160.

ThenTrip Advisor person mentioned there is the bus Vilnius-Warsaw, which stops in Bialystok at 21:10. I can pick up a hotel there for a night rather than torture myself with 14 hours of bus, train and waiting stations.

Well, time for an early start tomorrow, so must quit!

[kaima]

I am on the bus with internet, and in about 3 hours should be getting off in Bialystok. Thanks to the internet I know there are city busses to the rynek - town center - damned spell checker! It gave me centers instead of center. It cannot leave words alone.

From Bialystok I will "wing it", find transit to Białowieski and then a room for a few nights. I have gotten more familiar with Polish transportation apps,, and they are sometimes better than WiFi info. After my time in Bialowieza I expect I will take trains to Warsaw and transfer down to Nowy Sacz as quickly as I can and experiment with local transport to the Slovak border. That is all part of Plan as you Go!

Biggest surprise so far is how many people speak excellent English.

This AM I left my backpack at the hotel and walked to the Vilnius Palace museum. Their permanent exhibit covers the history of Lithuania, and thus the history of Poland, in a very thorough and easily followed fashion. Well, easy with my prior readings. The same history using Polish names I find is more difficult to follow. But I put that down to a personal trait.

Kai

[pieter]

Dear Kai.

It is great to read about your traveling through Poland and adabting to the Polish public transport system. It is great to hear that a lot of Poles speak excellent English today. Have a great stay in Poland, and enjoy your journey, the Polish people, culture and your personal experiences over there.

Cheers,
Pieter

[kaima]

It seems some working knowledge of Polish language (at least a few critical words) greatly simplifies life. I am just beginning this task, working up a basic list of words that are encountered in life and online, so I can work with a page such as with the great app. www.e-podroznik.pl. without the period, darn you spell checker! This App presents a way to locate public transportation schedules in a rather logical format, greatly aiding planning.

Currently I am in Bialystok and will be catching an express bus to Białowieska Forest if all goes well. Finding the correct city bus last night did not go well, and I could have as easily walked from the bus station, but I am here to discover, and discover I did. Happily the weather is cooled and good. The long distance bus system must be rated as very good to supurb for comfort and cost and speed, but the mode still challenges the limits of human endurance for the reality of the hours it takes and the restricted sitting positions. I will be switching back to trains when possible to take advantage of being able to move about while underway.

All roads and railroads lead to Warsaw, so I expect to wind my way south through Warsaw, Krakow, and Nowy Sacz. From there I will make another refinement on the way to Slovakia.

[kaima]

I thought my reportage was more up to date, but I was too busy enjoying Bialowiesza Forest to report. Posting pictures will take a bit longer, as I cannot upload them directly, but must reference them after uploading to ImageShack...

Voyager offers direct busses Bialystok-Bialowieza several times a day, taking two hours through the countryside. I got off at the end of the village, about 1.5 km from the Belarus border, and walked back to the Top Restaurant cum B & BB, Stoczek 1929. Nice place, fine room, superb restaurant, nice people.

When I discovered that Info - Tour - Registration office at the entrance to the Palace Park, I registered for a 10 AM tour with a bunch of Germans and Hollanders.

Next day, the 9th, we enjoyed an unparalleled walk through the forest for 3 hours. I have experienced a lot of Forest and virgin Forest, as you might imagine coming from Alaska. But this was special. This was the purest, least touched Forest in Europe, much as it must have been for our early spear chucking ancestors as we wandered into the country. Or perhaps it was after the land and Forest grew up after the ice retreated...

The trees are old, they are in every shape and form and size and condition... It is easy to see why early American pioneers referred to old trees as " widow makers" for the natural dead and fallen wood that would easily kill when it silently fell.

After the hike I rented a bike and bicycled the broad neighborhood, through the woods and villages, stopping for a different style of pierogis but excellent all the same ( was there ever a bad one?) Which energized the remainder of the cycle tour. On the last long stretch through the woods I took a wrong trail, one or two or three times, but finally came out where I wanted and was headed home as the sun was setting.

Then I met a possessive wild swine in the path, and doubled back a long way to give the ugly beast right of way. We both enjoyed a peaceful and healthy evening, stemming from that decision.

Yes, I am imagining a return, and a longer and more leisurely stay.

[Jaga]

Kai,

thanks for the description. Mickiewicz called this primeval forest "Matecznik" since it was a mother=habitat for the animals. Mickiewicz was born in today Belarus/Lithuania, but he is considered the best Polish national poet.

I am glad that you see good sides of Poland. I was worried 5-10 years ago that you would never go there. Poles love the nature, 30% of Polish area is a forest and it is not going to change. My dad, who was a professor of history, spent all his free time in the nature, he was an eager mushroom collector. One of my brother's love nature, he and my best friend love sailing.
There are some areas of Poland, for instance Polish Tatra Mountains, where I do not even want to ever go since there are so many people there and so many shops... Slovaks have much more nature and less interest to conquer it.....

Poles are city people and these city people try to visit nature every weekend they have. Polish transportation system is really good. The food is delicious. Gladly Poles are too smart to be americanized and abandon their pierogi for hamburgers.

I never was in Bialowieza, I wish I was..... referring to the wild swine (dzik), glad you gave him a space.

[kaima]

I managed to make it from Bialowieza to Bailystok, through Warsaw to Krakow last night, Jaga, and will leave later for the Slovak border. The train to Warsaw changed to a bus, then it was 7 minutes late. In the time remaining I had to buy a ticket and catch my express train in less than half an hour. My train station Polish is just at the beginning, so I had to learn Track and Platform among other words. I came into Central Station and the connection was listed as Warsaw West, which confused the devil out of me, as there were no signs to it. Happily I asked exactly the right man, and we switched from my badly mangled Slovak to English and he explained the train would leave from track 3, Central Terminal, and West is a designation to a small station next door. The ticket purchase went quickly, andi was on the train 5 minutes before it left!

I am booked on a local train I believe first to Tarnow, Nowy Sacz, and on to Zegiestow Zdroj, where somewhere in that vicinity is a foot bridge to Slovakia and Sulin, where my cousins live. It is a brand new bridge, so I have no idea how many miles I have to hike to get there.

A good part of this is just to see how it can be accomplished. Just for fun. I am a tourist!

Kai

PS. On Google Maps I guessed the bridge was closer to Zegiestow Zdroj. It was closer to Zegiestow proper. I got to see a bit of both as I searched for aroom, not really wanting to disturb my cousins after dark. I made the mistake of arriving in Zegiestow at sunset. I was unwilling to climb the mountain the the main settlements with a full pack, so finally headed across the bridge and to my cousins. I stopped at the Sulin Mineral Water spring for refreshments, then went on to surprise the family. Happily they are flexible and hospitable! Out of this I get to claim I am the first American visitor-tourist to visit Sulin from the northern, crossing the bridge from Poland.

[Jaga]

They do have tracks and platforms in other parts of Europe also.... but Poland has many trains so in order to accommodate for them....one has to know that the system is complicated.

It was probably a long trip from Bialystok to Ktakow. Was it still hot there?

Are you in Slovakia now?

[kaima]

Jaga,

I am leaving Bratislava after breakfast for Vienna, where I will take a high speed train to Munich. My friend is in the hospital there, and able to receive visitors, so I will go straight there.

The route will be the same as the asylants have taken, so I may see some of the controls that have been put in place. As I am obviously a western Tourist, I do not expect to share any of their experiences.

This is the quickest tour through Slovakia I have made since my first trip in 1970. It was great to visit family; I missed a wedding, but was on time to celebrate arrival of a new baby with another branch of the family. Obviously I am a bit occupied now and cannot post pictures. I have travel and hotels to arrange, and the internet is now indispensable. I have 8 or10 apps I used or tried to use in Poland. Most were quite helpful, a few were useless or too difficult for me to learn to use in the short time I had to learn them. I kept these apps on my Tablet, and intended to write up a short commentary.
PS. The railroad platform at Zegiestow was quite adequate. The road, railroad and some houses and summer homes are located between the mountain and the river.

[kaima]

POLISH TRAVEL APPS

I loaded free travel apps on my Android Tablet as I passed through Europe, and discarded those not needed when I moved on. The exception is the apps I downloaded to help with travel through Poland, as I wanted to report to this Forum and note that there seemed to be a good number of useful Polish apps, as opposed to occasional countries where apps were relatively useless.

My ideal, but not absolute need was to have a stand alone app that functioned without wi fi . Of course this does not function for reaching train schedules and connections without a large data base, so that was an accepted restraint.

Most of these Apps had to prove themselves easy and quick to learn, as I wanted to tour and not puzzle out programming or language quirks.

Bialystok BKM. All I got from this, with quick effort, was a list of names. Tried several times and discarded.

Map of Poland. Found real handy and detailed when I needed an offline map many times. A keeper. Location works when connected to wi fi and GPS functions. Competed with Google Maps for my use.

Poland Free. Handy and much used, as far as it goes, but arbitrary cut off of information to get you to buy the paid version was an irritation. Others may consider buying the full version. But I kept the free version and used it often.

Hiking Map Poland. For hiking in limited number of areas ( the most famous and popular), not intended for travel use. Offline maps did not work with the short effort I invested in learning what I'd while do. Wi fi seems necessary for full functioning. One saved track was recalled to the screen with no background map. To be considered when it fits your needs.

e-podroznik. My most used app. Calling up train and bus schedules was naturally limited to wi fi access, all that was missing were the tiniest of destinations. So for Zegiestow I called up nearby Muszyna. The relatively detailed maps were handy. I will use it again next time. The Polish interface is pretty intuitive even for English speakers.

Polish Translator. Naturally only on wi fi. Did not use much, instead found the
Pol-Eng Dictionary.. Quite handy. I used it translating in both directions. Will happily use it again.

PKP Timetable. Along with e-podroznik a much used and appreciated program, easy to use even with Polish interface.

Poland Travel. Internet only, Chamber of Commerce app, used very little. Includes travel map. Worth considering, perhaps great for planning ahead, but it did not fit with my helter-skelter travel and last-minute planning.

Bus Navi Was not needed for me. Has good off line map but it lacks detail when blown up.

[kaima]

The time has come to try posting some photos. Processing and reducing them in size is difficult or impossible on a tablet, at least with my skill level. If these prove to be too unwieldy, then I will come back sometime when I am at my computer in Alaska and post a reduced size for easier loading and viewing.

I have spent a lot of time in woods and wilderness, so I tried to select the "somewhat different", the beautiful, and the unique that I saw. The tour in the tightly controlled Bialowieza Ancient Forest was well worth the time invested. The tour guide was quite thorough without being boring with her wide range of relevant topics.



One of the old buildings used when this was the Russian Tsar's private hunting ground. Used today as an environmental education center. The bison in the foreground are fiberglas constructions, fulfilling their role as climb and play objects for visiting children.



The formal gate at the tourist entrance to the Restricted part of the park. Passage is only allowed for those accompanied by a guide.




One of several plaques honoring people who contributed major efforts to establishing and maintaining the Park.



The forest is allowed to grow, fall and develop as nature desires, so there is no care, plantings or control over the natural Forest. Here appears to be a younger portion of the forest as it matures.

[kaima]

The photos in the previous posting seem to fit the screen on my Tablet. I hope they are presented as well on computer screens!



There are a good number of twisted trees in the forest, some that twist clockwise and others that twist counter-clockwise. Scientists cannot explain why.



There are many leaning trees as happens in a natural Forest. The natural mixture of trees leads to different root systems, and when a wind storm or other catastrophe hits, the whole Forest is not destroyed, as it was on the uniformly planted coniferous Forest when a high wind hit about 2003. The southern slopes of the HighTatras were virtually denuded in that event. That should not happen in this naturally mixed Forest.



There are some trees wonderfully covered by thick blankets of long moss. I expected something like this only in rain forest.



Here you can begin to see the old growth Forest as it stands, and as it falls and rots naturally. Only minimal clearing of these maintenance trails is done, and then the wood is placed to the side to complete its life cycle.



This is a magnificent standing dead tree. In early America, as the white colonists cleared the ancient Forest, branches falling from above with no warning were known as " widow makers". Thus, they allow no one in the forest during high wind or storm events.