Dry for a few hours - Olomouc to Krakow
Trip Start
Jun 19, 2009
1
11
18
Trip End
Jul 05, 2009
Where I stayed
Krakow, Southern Poland, Poland
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The forecast rain stayed up (in the clouds that is) except for an occassional light drizzle, so managed to stay dry all day. What we could see of the scenery was lovely - rolling farm land, forests and lots of small villages.
Stopped for a nice steak just after crossing the Polish border and shared a table with a great fellow biker from Italy (also Roberto) on his way to Riga, Latvia for a Harley Davidson convention.
Then continued on through the Polish countryside toward Krakow. There is a general air of decrepitude in all the villages and farms, with lots of old cars, fallen down buildings and plaster falling off everywhere. There is also a lot of road work going on - probably EU development money to improve infrastructure and new motorways will be a real help. Riding the "highway" after the new motorway petered out felt a lot like the Pacific Highway about 20-30 years ago, waiting for a chance to overtake. Glad I was on an adventure bike - right in its element.
We arrived in peak hour and found the street, but not the hostel. The light drizzle had stopped and the sun had even come out, so we were baking hot in our plastic rain suits. We rode up and down a few times then finally rang and were directed back a few blocks. I stepped into a bank to withdraw some Zloty and in the 3 minutes I was inside the sky turned black. Back into our suits but didn't have time to do them up properly (and change back into waterproof gloves) before the sky opend and a deluge of biblical proportions soaked us through. There was even some hail! Boots, riding suit, oversuit, underwear and dry gloves all went from dry to soaked.
We finally found the hostel (about to go down for our free Polish dinner) and it's a typical friendly hostel filled with lots of young travellers, so I better go find Lachlan and make some new friends.
Quick look at Krakow then down the Salt Mines tomorrow, then off to the Ginger Monkey hostel in the High Tatras of Slovakia. Sure beats working!
Cheers
Rob
Comments
Tomorrow
See, there you go, tomorrow is always another day. Especially when you've been kept awake all night by drunken youths who have no consideration for anyone else.
New invention
There's an invention designed to increase the comfort of motorcyclists travelling in rainy areas - it will keep the rain and hail away from your body, comes complete with heating and wide, adjustable, well-padded seats ...
poor babies
I am reading with baited breath for the next episode of the Roy Riders. Now Lach, dont be too hard on Dad, at least he is keeping the rain out of your face. Looking forward to the photos. love jennyxxx
more rain?!
best not mention the sun over here... ^_^; oops -_-;
good to know our intrepid explorers found their hostel in the end. don't get trenchfoot :( you seem to be damp more often than not.