365EnglandFans.com - Your Stories from Katowice, Poland

Tales from Katowice - Poland V England, World Cup 2006 Qualifier, 8 September 2004

South Normanton on Tour

I met Tomasz via the web and a posting he had put on Englandfans, he is a paid up member of the club, Polish and lives in Bydgoszcz. We first met in Gothenburg for the friendly against Sweden.

We booked to travel to Poland for the game in April and rang Tomasz to let him know there would be 4 of us on the flight to Krakow, "No problem" he says "I will pick you up from the plane". As the match approaches 2 more of the lads book to fly to Katowice, "No problem" says Tomasz "We will meet at bar".

When we landed at Krakow we rang Tomasz as he had not arrived "Ten minutes" he said. Shortly after he pulls into the car park opens his boot to put coats etc in, he says "Tim, beer for you!!" pointing at a chiller full of beer in the boot! Quality Lad!! He had gone to the trouble of buying beer, water, cola, orange juice etc.

He had already driven approx 400km from Bydgoszcz to Krakow then drove us straight to the stadium, once there he sorted two taxis into town, helping two other England lads who found that their taxi driver would not budge!

The two lads who had flown to Katowice had found a nice little bar off the beaten track, cheap beer!! In fact 6 pints and a vodka Redbull for about 6 quid, we're stopping here lads say I!! Having quenched our thirst for an hour or two it was time to shoot back to the stadium, two taxis duly arrived. Those without Englandfan tickets managed to blag their way into the England bit, result!!

After the game we split up, Baldy and Johnny B had to go back to Katowice, we wished them luck! While we were taken back to Krakow by Tomasz. On the way we stopped at a services on what passed for the Motorway, Tomasz had a word with the girl behind the counter, shot off to his car and returned with 4 bottles of beer, then found he had not got his bottle opener.

He went up to the counter and borrowed one! We got to Krakow airport about 1AM, it looked shut, I thought we would have to spend all night in the cold but thankfully the doors swept back and let us in. We said our goodbyes to Tomasz and our thanks, the lad looked absolutely knackered!! In the interests of cheapness we did not book a Hotel and just roughed it, in hindsight I am glad we did because it was not much of a hardship, kipped on the plane for two hours so not too bad. Anyway, Andrew, "Mucka", "During the War" and "Tim the Book" would like to thank Tomasz for his effort.

Thanks Tomasz, top lad.

Mark Raven, Brighton

..../ continued from Austria

At 5pm we caught the train back to Vienna West Station, made our way over to the South station to catch our overnight train to Krakow.

We got the right platform, but got confused by the train. Coach 1 was closed, coaches 2 & 3 went to Prague, Coach 4 to Moscow, Coaches 5 & 6 to Katowice and Warsaw, but luckily coach 7 was ours and the sleeper to Krakow.

There had been many warnings about overnight trains between Austria and Poland and our carriage looked like it belong in Wackey Racers! Once inside, well what can I say. Our couchette had been converted to 2 beds only, had a sink, plus complimentary croissants and bottles of water.

There were about a dozen England fans on the train, and it was a very peaceful night.

Tuesday and we arrived at 5.58am into Krakow. We visited the cashpoint then took a taxi to our Hotel to drop off our bags before venturing out for the day. When we arrived they had no record of the reservation. We showed them our voucher and were told to come back after breakfast! So we had breakfast and went to the booking centre. Luckily the voucher booked through
totalstay.com was backed by Orbis (local Hotel chain) and Gullivers travels.

They said come back at midday once checkout time had passed and they would see what they could do. So we went off to the main square, got our bearings, had a wander round and went back to the hotel. A room (in the supposed fully booked hotel) had miraculously become free, so we were able to freshen up.

During the day we strolled round the main square, it's a great place to visit and one I would certainly recommend to others. In the evening we had a meal of beetroot soup with pasta in it followed by Chicken in a garlic sauce , well it was chicken Kiev and the whole thing costs us
about £5.

Wednesday was match day. This was my third trip to Poland and the other three have all been rather nasty violent affairs. A lad had organised 2 coaches from Krakow to Chorzow (suburb of Katowice) so we had booked that before leaving England. The coach didn't leave until 4pm (Katowice about 1 ½ hours away), so in the morning we wandered up to the Wawel region of
Krakow. Krakow survived being bombed during the war, so is very historic.

The Palace had an amazing court yard, and the dragons den was a fascinating place, all within the Wawel palace, but in the cliff side. We went back to the main square and had a look round St Mary's Church. On the hour every hour the bells chime and then a trumpeter plays a tune that stops half way, it's a tribute to the original trumpeter who was killed when sounded a
warning a few hundreds years previous. The midday bell and trumpet is played on the national radio station every day.

The coach left at about 4.30pm and we arrived into the stadium area about 6pm. First of all we got directed away from the ground and the driver started to park up with the Polish coaches miles from the ground. Bryan who had sorted the coaches had a chat to him and we were soon on the road again and this time we were
allowed to the England entrance and our coaches was driven inside the police cordon and we were safely in the ground.

I thought we played well and the 4,000+ England fans made plenty of noise, but not as much as the enthusiastic Poles. They were a couple of dodgy moments when seats and coins started to be thrown about but the Police dealt with it very well and
calmly, so different to previous matches! After the game we were kept in for about an hour 20 minutes and we were back into our Hotel bar in Krakow at 1am.

Thursday and we had booked a trip to Auschwitz. We left at 9.30 and arrived just after 11am. Well I am not sure what to say about the place. There were a fair few England fans about and it was good to see everyone being 100% respectful. You start by entering the gates with the infamous "arbeit macht frei" words above the gate, meaning "work makes you free". You then move on to various accommodation blocks that have been set up as a tribute.

The place that got to me was the room of 150kg of women's hair that was cut off once they had been gassed, the next had 44,000 pairs of shoes, the next
20,000 suitcases with names and where they lived written on them, the next baby clothes. Makes you feel strange, difficult to explain. Quite a few on our trip found it difficult to cope, but there are people on hand to talk
to. After that it was on the punishment block. They had starvation cells, suffocation cells, standing 4 in a bricked up cell 90 x 90, many died standing/squashed up. Once cell contains a shrine to a religious man who took the place of another prison to die of suffocation. The man who he replaced survived the Holocaust and lived to be 94 and died just a few years ago.

Outside of this was the death wall, where prisoners were stripped naked and shot in the back of the head. There were a few flowers left in tribute, pride of place was the St George's carnations left by Mark P and others (excellent and tasteful gesture) Other Jewish prisoners had to move the bodies before they were then shot. The last bit we saw was the only remaining gas chamber. We stood in a spot where they estimate 77,000 were gassed and the "ovens" where they were cremated. Next to this gas chamber was the gallows where camp commander Hoss was hanged once the Soviets had liberated the camp.

Most of the atrocities took place in Birkenau our next
visit. Birkenau became the main death camp. They gassed on average 5,000 people a day (took 20 minutes to kill 1,500 people). They exterminated 400,000 Hungarian Jews in 1944 in just 2 months. It was still hard to believe that the Jews had to pay for the train to the camps, still believing they were going to a better place! 900,000 they believe were gassed without
even being registered. They still do not know how many died in the camp, they estimate between 1.5m and 2m. It was very humbling, but I am glad we went.

When we got back to Krakow we went on a Horse and Carriage ride to treat ourselves (and to try and lighten our mood a little) and then late on went for a superb meal . I had a starter of cheese soup (filled with vegetables and came on its own heater!!), followed by bigos (meet and cabbage in a cottage loaf! Add to this a few drinks and the bill came to 80 zlotys, about £7.50 per head.

Friday and we had to be up and out the hotel by 6.15am to catch a cab to the airport and our 7.50am Lot air flight from Krakow to Gatwick. We got back to Durrington just after midday

So roll on Azerbijan in less than a month!

Mark R
Brighton & England

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