Kraków, Wieliczka and Auschwitz 2009

Maria and I took a train from Warsaw to Krakow, in the south of Poland. This was the second time I was in the south of Poland.

The first time was during my trip to Bieszczady, where I enjoyed hiking in the company of new good friends thanks to an AEGEE Summer University event. During that trip, Simon and I loved a delicious Polish dish called "placek po wegiersku" (we called it Shabo) so Maria took me to a very nice hidden restaurant where they prepared it. It was awesome!

Of course Polish food has more dishes and they are really tasty in my opinion. Maria had the already famous around the world Pierogi.

Krakow is a nice city with many interesting places to see. When we were there everything was covered by snow which made it even more beautiful.

There were many stands selling a bread called obwazanki. And many pigeons!. We also noticed the presence of many kebabs hehe

Not far from Krakow, in a town called Wieliczka, there is a very famous and old salt mine. So famous that it is included in the Unesco world heritage list. And I can confirm that it deserves to be visited. The most beautiful part of the salt mine, in my opinion, was a huge cavity that was converted into a cathedral with numerous figures sculpted on the salt. Actually, Maria's ancestors participated in creating such a piece of art!

Another famous place that we visited, near Krakow, is the Auschwitz former concentration camp. Although a few weeks before going, the sign at the entrance saying "Arbeit macht frei" (work makes you free) had been stolen, by the time we arrived the police had recovered it already.

Watching Auschwitz concentration camp in person was impressing. Although we all have seen it in the movies, when you are there somehow you realize that it is something real, that happened and could happen again. You can enter to the houses where people were kept, see their clothes, luggage, photos, information about the war..

And of course you can also see in person places where people were hanged, a wall where they used to shoot them down, or a room where they used to kill people with gas. Human beings are capable of the best and of the worst.

Warsaw, Christmas 2009

I spent last year's Christmas with Maria and her family in Poland!! The trip was longer than expected. Due to snow conditions I missed a plane and had to spend one night in Helsinki.

Some friends had told me that their luggage got lost so I decided to carry hand luggage only. It was a good decision in fact as I could give my Christmas presents without trouble. I wonder if Maria liked her mother's new camera more than her new headphones though! :)

A few days after my arrival, Maria's cousins (Ela and Ula) and their parents came to spend Christmas together. Actually they didn't know I would be there, so maybe they got surprised hehe.

They brought even more cakes and cookies and we spent long hours playing board games. Maria's house was nicely decorated and it looked like real Christmas! We had a good time and my favorite game was Shogun, because I could build castles and protect Nagoya from the neighbor prefectures! :D I also enjoyed another game called Fasolki (Bonanza in Spanish) asI could learn important words in Polish as 'pijak' (drunk).

In Christmas day, we did a Polish tradition that consists of giving a piece of 'sacred' bread to each other and say some good words.

Warsaw's streets had beautiful illumination on the trees. We went together for a walk in the old town and visited a Polish church. During the day I walked the streets of Warsaw with Maria and she took many good pics.

Joukouji (定光寺)

Another spot not far from Nagoya to watch momiji (紅葉), the colors of the fall, is Joukouji (定光寺). I went there with my hiking club a few months ago.

Joukouji station is quite easy to reach, just take the JR Chuo line from Nagoya. It takes around 35 minutes.

We realized how popular this place is when we saw that everybody was getting off at the same station. Joukouji has natural trails suited for easy walks and also a quite important temple. In fact the third kanji of Joukouji (寺: ji) means "temple"!

This time, the hike was led by Chiho-san and a new leader in the club, as you can see in the picture, who was hiking with us for a long time!! :D

The trail we followed was very beautiful and the ground was covered by fallen leaves which made it comfortable for walking. There were many different colors on the trees.

Also around the park there are many traditional Japanese houses with very well conserved gardens. I like Japanese gardens very much and they really put a lot of effort.

Finally, after crossing a nice pond through a typical Japanese bridge and climbing many steps, we arrived at Joukouji temple.

There were many families and I took some pictures of cute children playing with the leaves or enjoying the natural environment.

Near the temple, there is a viewpoint frome where we could see, in the distance, the beautiful shape of Nagoya station towers.

It was not only me who was amazed by the view! :)

We went back using the same train. We were all tired but happy for the nice excursion.

Mennoki (面ノ木) and Kourankei (香嵐渓)

One week after visiting Soni Kogen, I went with my hiking club for another trip.

This time I started the day eating a delicious grilled ayu 鮎.

Then, we went to Men-no-ki (面ノ木), a virgin forest near Toyota city.

This forest is a good place to contemplate the momiji or kouyou (紅葉) which refers to the phenomena that occurs in Autumn when the leaves of some trees like the Maple change color.

We had a guide (wearing typical　jika-tabi 地下足袋, like the ninja turtles :D) that explained us the names of the trees, etc. In my hand I am holding leaves of two kinds of Maples and a Japanese beech (Buna ブナ).

Some of the trees in the forest were really old, over 300 years old.

The guide also showed us some liquid (I forgot the name) under the bark of the trees that was often used in Chinese medicine. Some deers (shika 鹿) seemed to like the tree's bark as well as we can see in the picture above hehe.

It was like those forests that appear in traditional tales for children. In fact there were even figures of a mythological creature called tengu 天狗.

One funny anecdote was that three of us where carrying the same watch. In the picture we compare our measures of the altitude. They differ a bit because we set the reference pressure at different days and so on :D

Near the forest there was a wind power plant. And it was indeed a good location for that because it was really windy there.

We had lunch near the wind power plant. But it was quite cold there due to the wind. Some people were well prepared for it though as you can see in the pictures :D

Before dying of coldness we found a really funny coffee place in the middle of the mountain. It was more like a farm with different chicken and silkies (ukokkei 烏骨鶏). And actually, despite the sign at the entrance, they had no coffee! :D But they did have tea and some cakes ;). And right after that we went to warm our bodies in a Japanese onsen. It's such a pleasure to go to a onsen after feeling so cold!! :D

At night we went to Kourankei (香嵐渓) which is a famous spot to see the colors of the leaves in Autumn. Even at night it is interesting as they put lights on the trees and there are many Japanese stands selling food. Once again, a very complete trip thanks to the CHIC hiking club! :)