Dave has me awake to do a bloody walking tour. Here we go again. I’m dying of sleep deprivation and dehydration as we stumble around Bratislava’s old town. This takes two hours. It’s nice enough with the Christmas markets and all, but it really has nothing compared to the likes of Prague, Budapest and Vienna. …
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Bratislava
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Across the country
We make very good time thanks to my fellow Brit and his right hand drive car. It feels really odd to get into the left hand side passenger seat, although this is what I’ve been doing at home for 30 odd years. I slip down to have a snooze at some point, and catch the …
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Zdiar
I’m in a small village in the Tetris mountains, Slovakia. No wait, that’s a game. Hang on. Google maps. OK Tatra mountains. Apparently a very famous and popular region, there isn’t a sinner here. The weather is terrible and I can’t even see a hill, and the only eatery open in the village just does …
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Slovakia
I’ve not actually been to bed. One hour turns into another and before I know it the dawn is breaking and I might as well stay up for the early traffic to get across the border. It’s only now that I can see the beauty of my surroundings, and the morning mist on the snowy …
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Parting gestures
I’m standing by the side of a busy Krakow road with little sleep and getting drizzled on. Nobody is stopping. They need to hurry up as well because I want to be out of the country before a certain special lady receives a bunch of thirteen yellow roses with red tips. Yes I know it’s …
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Krakow
So on no sleep whatsoever I force myself to finally do two walking tours to see the city. Around 10 am I’m necking a double espresso in a cafe just off the main square, blinking through bleary eyes and feeling boozy-party-come-down-paranoia you only regularly get from staying out all night on the sauce. It’s going …
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Sleepless in Krakow
I’m writing this after being awake all night festering in a hostel room that smells of this guys farts. It’s actually alright once you’re used to it, but it’s when you walk back in from any length of time away that you’re hit with a wall of stench that’ll get right on your sick trigger. …
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Checkmate
James Peter Alden opened his eyes under the pillow. He wasn’t sure if he’d slept, but what snatches of rest he managed were troubled. The curtains did little to keep the light at bay, and grey though it was, it still filled the room with unrelenting brightness. He vaguely remembers losing his tenth game of …
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Cold sores and the underside of hostel bunks
The two are generally unrelated, yet I spend a lot of time contemplating the graffiti above me as I suffer a lousy fever blister. Standing several freezing hours by the side of a road hasn’t helped, and neither has the events of the last few days. The surprising thing about this hostel bunk is that …
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Auschwitz
I’ve had a whirlwind couple of days since arriving in Krakow in less than spectacular fashion. Most notably taking the angel behind the hostel desk out to dinner and generally punching above my weight. Today however, it’s time to put things into perspective. I’m visiting Auschwitz. It’s the only reason I decided to turn North …
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