Small town Poland

We arrived after two hours or so in Augustow, a lakeside town I had booked way at the beginning of the trip. I didn't realize that the place we were actually staying (a guest house/cabin/resort sort of thing) was well removed from the town, shopping, transit, restaurants, and everything else. We had a quick dinner downtown near the bus station and called a cab to bring us to our lodgings.

The next day we walked for an hour or so to get into town and find something to eat, and resolved to buy groceries in the evening. We got some food at a place selling pierogi, then headed to a shoe store where Auberon sorrowfully parted with his beloved yet disintegrating sneakers in exchange for more substantial trail shoes.

Augustow is a very small place that is mostly suburb. A park and square forms the center near the bus station, and then a little further north is the lake and many places that will sell you boat tours in the high season. There were certainly people around, perhaps it was even one of the most bustling tiny cities we'd seen. But soon we'd seen what we needed to and took a cab back to the hotel.

There we set out for the woods, and quite some woods they were. We hiked through trails and paths all around the general area, meeting as I expected nobody else. The trails were clearly marked and I imagine that in the high season it's common to see other hikers enjoying the thick birch groves.

The next day saw an incredibly slow start as we stayed in the room well past noon. The initial goal was to buy some train tickets at the station, but once we got ourselves over there it was clear that the station itself had been closed for years, and passengers were expected to buy the tickets on the train. Later in Poland we saw more boarded-up stations, replaced entirely by mobile ticket machines carried by the conductors. We walked around the other side of the outskirts, soon chancing upon an abandoned factory.

I've seen a lot of great pictures from abandoned Soviet industry, and last time I was in Poland I saw some enticing buildings from a distance. It wasn't until one of the last buildings we went into that we discovered a huge forge and crane-like apparatus, which was extremely interesting to look at and climb around in. It looked like it had been partially disassembled a while ago, as there were strange holes in the floor and inaccessible catwalks near the ceiling. Nobody came in or disturbed us for the duration of our visit.

The partying Lithuanians next door did their best to prevent it, but we did in fact get some sleep before our very early train. A few hours and a few transfers later, and we found ourselves in Krakow.

Pictured: the Augustow lake and one of the buildings at the factory.