Observations of Poland and all things Polish

Having left the town of Elk in eastern Poland I rode cross country and now just west of Berlin in another odd guesthouse, luckily got the last room just as the heavens opened.

The roads all the way across were surprisingly good.
The drivers were surprisingly courteous and very bike aware even though I didn't see many bikes, they also tip you the wink before you get to the speed traps.
They have topless car washes!
They have fruit sellers on the side of the road which in itself is not unusual, they also have prostitutes lined up in between the fruit sellers which I thought was.
The cemetaries are very colourful, amazing flowers (not the kind of thing I would normally notice).
My Polish is as good as most peoples english I met today.
There are lots of lakes.
I disturbed a hooker and her client when I stopped for an 'adventure p***' by the side of a road.
I didn't do too much for Anglo-Polish relations when I stopped for another 'adventure p***' in a deserted lane, it actually turned out to be someones driveway and he waited patiently in his car while I finished up as my bike was in the way, the shake of the head said it all.
Mike
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TeekondPOLAND!

Initial blog from the newly formed TeekondPOLAND group. After yesterdays parting of the ways I am now directly north of Warsaw. When we got out of Russia it started to become apparent that things were not rosy in the Baltica team. In hindsight we probably should have split up earlier and then I wouldn't have said some of the things I did but where would be the story in that? The local Latvians wouldn't have been treated to the sight of two English guys dressed up as storm troopers have a frank exchange of views whilst being watched over by a bewildered Irishman dressed in a yellow high visibilty vest and a cowboy hat! Simon wouldn't have been able to ride gravel tracks through the arse end of Lithuania, catching a ferry across to the Curonian Spit, riding to the Russian border and pitching a tent at god knows what time of the night. Will and I wouldn't have found ourself in a weird town, staying in a weird antique kind of hotel that sold gas masks, egyptian paintings, catapults and Virginia State Police badges! Followed by dinner at midnight in the Bumbling Bombier sat next to a table of extremely drunk Irish soldiers who did their country proud!
After leaving the Curonian Spit I headed for the Polish border in the pouring rain, stopped on the road to help some Lithuanian guy fix a puncture, then with some trepidation and a bit of a buzz I arrived at the border, lots of trucks and iffy looking truck drivers but the roads were nowhere near as bad as expected, heading south to Augustow and turned west and ended up in the town of Elk, sorted a room with secure parking and breakfast for 50 dollars (no Polish dosh and they didn't take cards but the american money seemed to do the trick). Nice meal by a lake and a good kip, booked breakfast for 7.30 and was disappointed to find the dining room in darkness and no one around, was about to go and express my disappointment when I twigged that I hadn't put my clock back.
On the road at 8am, great ride through the countryside, Poland so far has been good! Very colourful country!
Exchanged texts with the others this morning, everything seems to be cool!
Mike
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Legendarny Smak!

Poland mint! After a wet start in Kaunas, like mike an hour early cos we forgot about the time change, we had a great breakfast - best and cheapest yet, served by a smily waitress.

A bit of a shclep to the polish border, but then good roads through suprisingly pretty countryside. We hit the 16 which is 200 miles of good road. To augment mikes urinatiion story, I'm pretty sure that I fell asleep on the same driveway for an hour. I was surprised by the dewey grass at 2 in the afternoon!

Will saw 4 accidents and was compelled to flick the bird at an incalcuable number of motorists - the teekondTwo have encountered less courteous road users than the teekondONE

We headed for the north east of gdansk because the lonely planet listed a good place to stay. We went through about 20 km of what felt a bit like african coast - shacks and sand - reminded me of kenya a bit.

We were a little perturbed by the memorial by the chain link ferry (that was such a rubbish chain link ferry that it needed a tug) that had the number 60 on it - we're assuming that that is the number of people that died last time is sank.

Anyhow we eventually found somewhere resembling pontins to stay in. The shipyards tomorrow and then to berlin!

Night night.

Simon and will

Ps will is talking complete nonsence because the only food we could find were some pretzel sticks called legenary smak!

Pps stalks are quiite nice

Ppps we found 7.1 percent beer!

Pppps we're being thrown out of the bar.
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A wet start.

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An interruption to our normal programming

Those of you out there avidly following the schenanigans of teekondBALTICA will have noticed a reduction in the frequency of blogging in the past few days. As Will announced earlier today, this can be best attributed to a structural failure in team dynamics. The united front that prevailed through scandinavia and russia has faultered due to differences of objectives. The Baltic states have always been devicive in geo politics and so too in the teeko politics!

Will and I turned North again to The Hill of crosses in Lithuania - an amazing hill covered in thousands of crosses and religious symbols. I'm far from a devout christan but it was an impressive spectacle nonetheless. Apparently the whole area was once flooded with sewage by the communists and was dismantled frequently during Russian times, it keeps coming back though.

We parted with Mike at a petrol station Kleipeda with a handshake and a nod. He's off to the South of Poland

We are now in Kaunas, Lithuania. We will cross in to Poland tomorrow after extricating the bikes from the very tight hotel lobby that we squeezed them in to this evening. Next stop the shipyards of Gdansk. From there we will complete to circumnavigation of the baltic sea via germany.

For the record, the last couple days went: Parnu biker bar, nude beaches, gravel roads at 50mph, beer at camp, losing each other on the way to Riga, Simon crashes his bike, blazing row at the roadside in Latvia. Mike and Will's weird hotel, Simon's computer game ride up the curonian spit in the dark and rain.

Cheers

S

Ps crazy Lithuanian kids doing donuts in the car park outside

Pps According to the recptionist, Kaunas is dangerous at night!
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The teekondTWO at the Hill of Crosses, Lithuania

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The wheels fall off both the wagons!

It is with great regret and a certain amount of relief that I have to announce the disintergration of team teekond Baltica. The people have spoken and decided that they want different things from the trip at this point. Mike is off to Auschwitz to cheer himself up! Simon is off to Gdansk for some solidarity! Will is, as the old song goes, stuck in the middle with himself. More later.

Cheers Will

Ps. We're on a world heritage sandbank in lithuania and its pissing with rain.
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