Day 05

Day of recovery.

In the evening Torsten takes us to the 'cheapest restaurant in town'. Located in a small street near the centre it looks almost abandoned from outside. Graffiti covers the walls.


Upon entry we pull back a curtain and step down a flight of stairs into a dimly lit room. Inside the walls are covered in Posters of past and future events, we find space on a cumfy old couch. One part of the wall catches my eye - it's rough, and the surface is raised. Felicia and I stare at this distorted patch and like an illusion we can each see different abstractions. Here is a photo I took of the wall:

We can see:
-an unhappy man with one false eye.
-a younger man looking to the right.
-a man with a mohawk kissing a woman with long hair

Later, a visit to the toilet prooves to be equally as interesting with graffiti on every wall, stickers scattered around and a painting above the toilet. I'm curious as to what each image means - I'm sure that it's more than just art.

Day 03

The night is short. We wake at 9am feeling hungover from our pirate adventures, but today will be a great day! We're going to Swiss Saxony - a large area of mountains bordering the czech republic.

Our journey is delayed when we hit heavy traffic due to road construction work. Not wanting to sit bored in the hot car I take Guzik and walk along the road. It twists and twines along the mountain side, with glimpses of large grassy pastures peaking through the tree line along the way.

We park near Schmilka, and walk up the hill. As we arrive at the top the mountain rocks break through the tree line. The rock face is daunting - but today we will climb it.


(Near where we were climbing - picture from the web)

Once setup and ready to go we tackle the easiest rock face. Rated (4 - almost wheelchair access). It should be easy, but in actual fact there are a few challenges along the way. One of our team - Andreas - struggles at one point. Holding our breath we watch as he struggles to hold on, his legs shake, his voice quivers, he forces himself to maintain focus and executes the move. We breath - he made it!

Making it to the top we scribble our names in the log book. It feels nice to have our names written into history.

Our descent is much faster, and at the bottom a victory beer is awaiting us :)

Arriving back to Pablos house in the late evening we have 8 hungry mouths to feed. Fred and I prepare a mean sausage pasta dish with chilli, its spicy but nobody died :)

Day 02

Today our trip starts casually with a Coffee in town. The owner takes care of us well and even fetches a bowl of water for Guzik. After, Torsten takes us on a guided tour. We leave the centre and walk up a mountain overlooking Dresden. The view is great, and on the top we find a small but beautiful forest - so unexpected in the city.

Next we head for the local indoor climbing wall. At 11eur per session it almosts breaks our travel budget but we're glad to be back on the wall. There's a great selection of routes and they're diverse enough that we can all climb at our own levels. In no time at all we're exhausted, and all we can do is through grapes at one another!

Tired from Climbing we return to Pablos house where he has been preparing a meal for us. The evening is relaxed, the company is good.The house is in a students area, and full of frendly people.

Our evening ends with a pirates party where Torsten is a DJ. Most attending are very young, making Fred feel like a dinosaur. But nobody blinks at our presence and we chat and dance until the early hours of the morning.

Arriving home about 4:30am we crash hard.

Day 01

We're on the road; our team - Fred, Guzik and I. Destination: Dresden (270km)

Today the adventure starts! I have mixed feelings, mostly I'm excited about what is to come - the feeling of being on the road, that excitment about being able to point on a map or out the window and simply say: "lets go there!"

The other side of me is sad - sad to be leaving Poland and the friends I met along the way. Sad to be closing down a life, packing it up into boxes and plastic bags. I know this feeling will pass, and I also know I will visit Poland again, but for now my home is the road.

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Just before passing over the boarder into Germany we quickly filled the car with petrol and stopped into the local diner for one last polish meal. I have to say it was not the best meal I've had, but its good enough for one last memory.


Arriving in dresden we find our way to Torsten a local friendly couch surfing friend of freds.

Torsten tells me a few stories one of them is:
Once he was in new york staying in a 6 floor youth hostel. When he went to the toilet he noticed a large circle on the roof, and a constant drip coming from the centre. He avoided standing under the 'raincloud on the roof' and finished his business, When he was done, he flushed the toilet. The water began to rise up, up and over the top... flooding the surrounding floor. His thoughts wondered to the person in the toilet below also looking up at the 'raincloud on the roof'... The life of a traveller.