Lublin, Poland
Trip Start
Mar 16, 2007
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Trip End
Apr 13, 2007
Lublin, Poland
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Sean was off to the airport, I intended to head of to Lublin, as it was about halfway on the way to Warsaw, and had good write ups in Lonely Planet & Trip Advisor. Also, I was intigues to read that the famous Lublin University had a Celtic Languages department which included a Welsh language course, I thought I might even hear my native Welsh being spoken on the streets!
Unfortunately, the rather unhelpful woman on the Info Desk at the station ( all over the world every train station has to have at least one unhelpful staff member who gives you crap info: FACT) told me it would take 14 HOURS to get to Lublin, which was nonsense but I thought to hell with it, would get a ticket to another location in the same region.
Having bought a map at a kiosk, I went for Kielce, which sounded familiar...
Despite not going to Lublin, I was so relieved to be on the train, you really feel your trip has started when you leave the city destination on your own...I then remembered where I had read about Kielce, when reading up on potential destinations in Poland I had stumbled accross Kielce on Tripadvisor, the only positive quote about Kielce was that while shops looked empty and closed, more often than not they were open, and this was proved by a photo of a little corner shop!
Needless to say, it didn't stike me as a "Paris of the East" so imagine my relief that the 1st thing I saw in Kielece train station was a departures board with Lublin, 2pm on it (God knows why the lady in Krakow train station didn't tell me this!).
On arrival in Lublin I dragged myself along the busy suburbs to the town centre, where the hotels were, and booked into the comfortable Motel PZM.
Althrough out my time in Poland I was struck by the genuine friendliness of Polish people, which was exemplified by a local fellow called Chris insisting on giving me a tour of the old town when I had merely asked him if he knew where an internet cafe was! Chris was in the tourist info so was a knowledgable guide, I saw the cathedral which housed on of only 20 copies of the Turin Shroud, a gift form Pope John Paul II, I also went to the top of a tower where I took the panorama shots of Lublin- Dziękuję Chris!
I enjoyed my visit to Lublin, it was a lot smaller than Krakow but the advantage is in a few hours you know your way aroung, and it was nice to have comfortable room to myself after a hostel...
On the outkirts of Lublin, lies the concentration camp Majdenek, which although on a smaller scale to Aushwitz was equally traumatic, the Red Army encirled Lublin quickly and the SS did not have time to destroy the facilities, so the furnaces and other lethal paraphanelia are intact.
I have to admit that this was an harrowing visit, as there were many Isreali school kids walking around, who were visibly upset, and being comforted by Rabbis. Adjacent to the furnace towers was a huge mound of ash housed in a mausoleum type building, on nearing I realised this was the ashes of the victims, all those lives reduced to nothing, for nothing. I will not upload too many pics of Majdenek, but please have a look at the Majdenek website...
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