The sly allusion in the second-last paragraph refers to Megan. More on Megan when we get to Budapest, but for now: I met her in Gdansk.

Right, I’m going to try and write slightly less in these, as heaven knows you’re all busy people – especially this time of year, what with all that buying presents and eating cake.

So, since I left Vilnius I’ve spent the last two weeks or so Poland. First port of call was Warsaw, which is a very odd city to visit. Warsaw has been talked down to me so many times that I was prepared for the worst – dull, dirty and depressing was the impression that I had, and I was quite happy to believe it. I n the event, I was happily surprised. Part of the pleasure, of course, was that the city was buried under a chunky couple of inches of snow, which could only delight the child in my soul. But besides that, the city itself is quite interesting. The overwhelming majority is large and modern – almost ultra-modern, in fact, as Warsaw was clearly and obviously far wealthier than many of the other European capitals I had visited so far. At the Warsaw Uprising, towards the end of WW2, Hitler basically numbered the buildings of Warsaw in order of their cultural importance to the Poles, before detonating them with teutonic efficiency; thus, most of Warsaw has no truck with any of this ‘classical architecture’ malarky, giving the casual visitor the slightly unsettling feeling that he or she has wondered accidentally into some transported American or Australian city centre. There is a reconstructed Old Town, which has actually been rebuilt with a degree of sympathy, which is quite refreshing.

Some other things about Warsaw: it’s slightly post-Soviet, it has the largest outdoor market in Europe, and does a zesty business in illegal gun smuggling.

From Warsaw to Gdasnk, which used to be called Danzig until the Australians got to it (“G’dansk, yer flamin’ gallah!” It’s a bad pun but I won’t apologise). Gdansk is a nice place. It’s very pretty, very peaceful and quite boring. That last is unfortunate – Gdansk is attatched to all sorts of important historical happenings (it was the seat of the Hanseatic League, housed the Knights Templar, and was more recently the birthplace of Solidarnosc, the trade union movement that was probably most directly responsible for the downfall of the Soviet Union), but none of them are really in evidence there. Most places tend to wear their histories on their sleeves, but not so Gdansk. I’m reading Gunther Grass’ The Tin Drum right now, which was set in Danzig, and am finding it far more interesting than actually visiting the city itself was.

One other thing about Gdansk: you can fly there for 1p + tax with Ryannair. Many British people do this.

So now I’m in Krakov. I was going to stop for a while in Poznan on the way south but didn’t for numerous reasons, some of which are pragmatic (I’m running out of time and money, and Istanbul is still a long way away), some less so (but a gentleman does not talk of such things). I’ll be here for a week, in which I hope to see Auschwitz and the Salt Mines, plus many other things, while hopefully not getting totally rained on.

Hope you’re all well and funky!