Masuria & Vilnius July 9-17, 2005

Travel Agency:	JónapotKrakkó
Photos:	Robert Farkas		Hungarian version
Web designer:	Ferenc Nagy		http://franknagy.atw.hu
Location:	World Map	Europe	Route in Poland Lithuania	Giby	Hotel Kukle
Story of Journey:	Vacation in the NE Corner of Poland, Close to the Lithuanian and Belarus Border Boarding-house: Pension Kukle in Giby. http://www.sejny.home.pl/turystyka/kukle/kukle-l.htm This bridge over Augustow canal is rotated 90 degrees to give way to the ships. Another trick under low bridges: the captain's bridge is lowered. There is a hole on the ceiling. His head is seen. http://www.suwalszczyzna.pl/eng_ver/eng16.htm http://www.suwalszczyzna.pl/eng_ver/eng06.htm Map: http://www.suwalszczyzna.pl/eng_ver/mapahe.htm Itinerary: We slept one day in Cracow then we stopped only for one hour in Warsaw. Accomodation: The pension Kukle=Cuckoo was at a small lake dirty lake. I did not dare to swim having hardly recovered wounds on my leg. Margaret does notlike swimming at all. We could find cranberries and wild strawberries next to each other. We had 2 resting days and 3 excursion days. On the first resting day we walked thru the forest to the next village ,Giby, and bought a map of Vilnius (capital of Lithuania). The food was very abundant in the pension. Once we aplauded the woman chef. We were the first Hungarian guests in the hotel. There was a storekeeper within 5 minutes of the hotel who knew some Hungarian words and had nice memories about the Lake Balaton and :-) a girl named Ágica. The hotel give a barbecue last night with famous Polish foods like the bigosz. Vilnius: Vilnius is the capital of the present Lithuania. It used to be the capital of the historical Lithuania before the union with Poland 1385. Then it became an important city of Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom. It is an important town for the Lithuanian as well as the Polish culture. Many famous Polish people like Mickiewicz lived there. After the division of Poland it belonged to Russia. The country is poor due to its marginal position within the European Union. Sorry to say, we could see only churches, and the guide stopped at each altar. We sat in a restaurant and tried to kinds of soups: a meat soup for Margaret and a the daily soup for me which turned to be a good potato and carrot soup. Later we ordered some main course because that evening was fish for supper in the pension. We stopped at the Trakai water castle. http://www.starewilno.webpark.pl/troki.htm. The cult of pope John Paul II The cult of pope John Paul IIis embarrassing in Poland. There are sculptures,reliefs, rooms where he stayed as museums. On the way back we had a sightseeing in Warsaw and spent a night there. Drawbacks: The conditions of money back in cas eof resingn were not step by step as expected but went down from 90% to 0% at _thirty_ days before the tour. The bus was very small (28 persons) and the seats especially in the front and the last row were very narrow. The places were not fixed in advance so we found our ones in the last row having theoretically 5 seats: 1. Margaret (70 kg) 2. Frank (85 kg) 3. man in straddling position (120 kg) 4. bag of foodstuffs (200 kg) 5. woman (150 kg) When there was no local guide in the bus the Hungarian guide sat to the bend down seat at the front door and we were allowed to sit in the first row.
Cracow	Altar of St. Mary	Altar of St. Mary	Vilnius	Gates of University Library	St. Rafael	Ostra Brana	Ostra Brana	The Black Madonna within the Ostra Brana	Holy Spirit Pravoslavic church	Casimir church
Trakai water castle	Moat and castle	Sailboat on the moat	Visitors I.	Visitors I.
Giby	Kukle= cuckoo	Building of the Hotel Kukle	Pier for swimmers	The lake from the pier
Wigry	Altar of Camalduli monks	Mikołajki	Lake	Cafeteria on
Boat trip from Gyzicko	Embarkation	This bridge is rotated 90 degrees to give way to the ships		Fellow passengers I.	Fellow passengers II.	Fellow passengers III.	The web designer & his wife	Sailing on the lake	Around the island of cormorants