Prostitutes and Polish Driving

I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed at 7:00, no small feat while staying in a party hostel, and headed north out of Krakow with the plan to head to Torun, about 275 miles away. This was another less than pleasant ride. Not sure what to say about Polish drivers except that they drive enthusiastically. Once again much of the way was two lane roads with quite a bit of traffic, this doesn't deter the Poles, however, from excessive speed or passing multiple vehicles at once. Several times during the day I had to brake and be prepared to go off the road because a car from the opposite lane was now barreling down my lane directly at me. Add to this the potholes, poor surfaces, and worst of all the ruts that I first discovered in Czech (and that were miniscule in comparison!) and it makes for an interesting ride. Even more interesting are the prostitutes on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, came across a group of 7 or 8 spaced out every kilometer or so. Tried to think of some way to take a photo, but I figured it wouldn't be appreciated! I let the locals have their fun and continued on at a sane speed, doesn't really make any sense whatsoever to pass as if you're at the Daytona 500 if you're just going to get caught up with everyone else at one of the numerous construction points or backups because of towns, but that doesn't deter anyone in the slightest!

Made it to Torun around 4:00 and decided to check out the town. Torun, the birthplace of Copernicus, is a beautiful place, and the best surviving example of Gothic architecture in Poland. It fortunately escaped destruction in World War II, and is very well preserved with many brick Gothic churches. The center was packed with Polish tourists, but few foreigners. Its a bit off the beaten path for most people.

Came across this group playing traditional music while checking out the town:

After exploring the town had a delicious ham, cheese, and mushroom filled pancake covered with a mushroom based sauce for dinner. I've actually been impressed with Polish food, typical of Central European food it can be rather heavy, but it is more flavorful than I expected. Discovered a student bar offering beers for 4.5 zloty ($1.60!) and struck up a conversation with the bartender before being invited to join a group of Polish students. Two of them spoke excellent English, (in general the level of English among young people in Poland is good – much better than France!) and we hit it off and many cheap beers were consumed.

Having no particular destination in mind the next I got off to a bit of a late start. Finally encountered some decent roads as I headed east, well actually the roads were shit but there was very little traffic so I wasn't constantly in fear of my life. Central Poland is like Kansas, flat and boring. Didn't see so much as a hill the entire day, just endless farms and forests. Decided to camp for the night on a lake, the northeast of Poland is a nice region of lakes and forests. The camp site was a bit dilapidated and my neighbors were blasting AC/DC, but it did the job. Met a Polish trucker on vacation and we discussed the miserable state of Polish roads and Polish driving habits, in the past couple months he's lost three mirrors from other trucks in the opposite lane!

Woke up to an absolutely miserable morning. Luckily I was able to break camp before the torrential rain started. I decided to wait out the worst of it and took cover at campground store. At the table next to me a group of middle aged Poles were downing beers before moving on to vodka, at 8:00 in the morning mind you. The rain and thunderstorms only lasted an hour or so and I hit the road, stopping just before the Lithuanian border for breakfast. Two German riders were also there, and we got to talking about our trips. I usually like meeting other riders, but one of them came off as a bit off an asshole. When I mentioned Mongolia, he asked in a haughty, condescending tone, “with that bike?” Of course they both rode BMWs with massive metal pannier. Not sure I need a BMW and with a bunch of expensive metal from the Touratech catalog on it to have an adventure!