Berlin
Since I last wrote, I travelled to Frankfurt an der Oder, then into Poland, where I stayed in Torun and Kwidzyn, back to Frankfurt an der Oder, and today to Berlin.
Germans seem to be prejudiced against Poles and Poland. When I told a few people here in Germany I was going to Poland, they told me to watch out for scam artists, that I would need a visa to get in, that the Polish border guards wouldn't let me in because I was an American, etc. I knew that most of these things were just plain wrong, but it still made me jittery. In the end, getting into Poland was no big deal; just wait for them to look you up in their database to make sure you're not a terrorist, show your car papers and passport, and that's it. Not even any questions about produce or alcohol like you get when you go into Canada.
The scenery in Poland is just beautiful, though many of the towns and cities look pretty poor, especially when coming from the picturesque Altstadts in Lüneburg, etc. Car theft does seem to be a problem, since all parking places boast that they have 24 hour guarding of cars, and one hotel I stayed at even had a big locked cage you drove the cars into.
The absolute worst part about Poland was the driving. Most of Poland is covered with two lane highways, except for about a 200 km Autobahn-like stretch from Warsaw halfway to Germany. Trucks have their own low speed limit of either 60 or 80 kph, while cars want to go much faster. This means that you basically drive halfway over the line on the right if you are happy with the speed you are going, or you drive halfway into the oncoming traffic lane if you're trying to pass someone.
This holds true whether or not there's actually a car coming towards you. So even if you're happily driving in your own lane, you have to constantly make sure there isn't a car you have to swerve to avoid coming at you. Oh, and Poles don't mind passing if there's a hill or a curve in the road. My 7.5 hour drive from Kwidzyn back to Frankfurt an der Oder was some of the worst driving in my life.
Everything is cheaper in much cheaper in Poland than in Germany or the US. Also, tips are not automatically included in the bill, so you can actually expect some degree of service from the wait staff.
I was a bit nervous since I don't speak a word of Polish, nor do I really know how to pronounce it. But both of the hotels I stayed at had staff who spoke fluent English. One place that I stayed at was a beautiful castle-like place which was seemingly staffed entirely by college age women who constantly smiled at me. I felt a bit like Sir Galahad at Castle Anthrax (Monty Python anyone?)
Back to Germany... Berlin's a really cosmopolitan city, but I'm kinda sad that so much of its Cold War history has been erased. And I'm peeved that World Cup has taken over the place, descicrating everything from the Fernsehturm to the Brandenburg Tor. If the Reichstag is covered by a giant soccer ball when I visit it tomorrow, I'm writing a letter.
Germans seem to be prejudiced against Poles and Poland. When I told a few people here in Germany I was going to Poland, they told me to watch out for scam artists, that I would need a visa to get in, that the Polish border guards wouldn't let me in because I was an American, etc. I knew that most of these things were just plain wrong, but it still made me jittery. In the end, getting into Poland was no big deal; just wait for them to look you up in their database to make sure you're not a terrorist, show your car papers and passport, and that's it. Not even any questions about produce or alcohol like you get when you go into Canada.
The scenery in Poland is just beautiful, though many of the towns and cities look pretty poor, especially when coming from the picturesque Altstadts in Lüneburg, etc. Car theft does seem to be a problem, since all parking places boast that they have 24 hour guarding of cars, and one hotel I stayed at even had a big locked cage you drove the cars into.
The absolute worst part about Poland was the driving. Most of Poland is covered with two lane highways, except for about a 200 km Autobahn-like stretch from Warsaw halfway to Germany. Trucks have their own low speed limit of either 60 or 80 kph, while cars want to go much faster. This means that you basically drive halfway over the line on the right if you are happy with the speed you are going, or you drive halfway into the oncoming traffic lane if you're trying to pass someone.
This holds true whether or not there's actually a car coming towards you. So even if you're happily driving in your own lane, you have to constantly make sure there isn't a car you have to swerve to avoid coming at you. Oh, and Poles don't mind passing if there's a hill or a curve in the road. My 7.5 hour drive from Kwidzyn back to Frankfurt an der Oder was some of the worst driving in my life.
Everything is cheaper in much cheaper in Poland than in Germany or the US. Also, tips are not automatically included in the bill, so you can actually expect some degree of service from the wait staff.
I was a bit nervous since I don't speak a word of Polish, nor do I really know how to pronounce it. But both of the hotels I stayed at had staff who spoke fluent English. One place that I stayed at was a beautiful castle-like place which was seemingly staffed entirely by college age women who constantly smiled at me. I felt a bit like Sir Galahad at Castle Anthrax (Monty Python anyone?)
Back to Germany... Berlin's a really cosmopolitan city, but I'm kinda sad that so much of its Cold War history has been erased. And I'm peeved that World Cup has taken over the place, descicrating everything from the Fernsehturm to the Brandenburg Tor. If the Reichstag is covered by a giant soccer ball when I visit it tomorrow, I'm writing a letter.