When I arrived in Gdańsk in Poland, I booked into the hostel Cycle On. Immediately from the title you get the idea that the guys that run the hostel, Piotr and Pawel are big cyclists. In my dorm room, by chance I met the lovely Mika. Mika is a Taiwanese traveller and runs the page…
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My fourth visit to Poland took me on an exciting new adventure that I concocted in my mind during a history lesson at Ards Tech in Northern Ireland. You see, I remembered the old moniker of the “Free city of Danzig” (once an autonomous region protected by the League of Nations). Back then, the place…
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It was another border crossing on this wacky journey for me recently as I decided on a night train to head from Poland to the Ukraine. I had been staying at the Mosquito Hostel in the city of Krakow and was out touring Auschwitz and Birkenau the day before, so it was a busy few…
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It was one of those travel days with a more dark and sombre tone. Certainly not the type of place to take selfies at and feel completely happy about. But if you read the first part of my day tour of German Nazi Concentration Camps with Mosquito Hostel in Krakow, Poland: Part 1 – Touring…
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When I arrived in the city of Kraków in Poland, it was time to delve into some Jewish history. Yes, I have spent a hat-trick of weeks backpacking through Israel and Palestine, but here, Jewish history is a huge thing, for sad reasons. Kraków has always had a large Jewish population and a Jewish neighbourhood.…
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“Arbeit Macht Frei” – Nazi German motto, taken from Lorenz Diefenbach. Before I get down to the business of writing about my tour to Auschwitz, it’s important to note that some people, including followers of my blog do not agree with visits to places this sensitive. While I understand the nature and the horrific aspect…
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Kraków is an old school backpacker’s trail hang out. Most overland backpackers and inter-railers end up here on their journeys around Europe, it’s such a cliched stop over, some North Americans even think it’s the capital city. Some travellers make it their only stop in Poland. But despite my long travel adventures, until December 2015,…
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“Stars about to fall, what do you say, Lyla” – Oasis. You’ll probably know that when I travel to a city or town in a country, I like nothing better than banging out a top 5 hit parade on backpacking sights. In most cases, we only visit these cities once in our life, so make…
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It was my first time in Poland in 8 years. It did feel hard to believe that it had been so long, probably aided by the fact that I have met so many Polish people around the world in my jobs and travels the last few years. And it was time to tour Poznań finally.…
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I thought recently about all the capital cities I’ve been to and how they don’t always live up to expectations. I’ve been to capital cities in about 55 of the 80 countries I’ve backpacked through and thought it was a good moment to do a top 5. I write this post from one of them…
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