Krakow/ Prague

I left today at 0800 and am now waiting on a plane to Krakow (yeah, waiting, there's some sort of restrictions and they told us we would be 25 min late......but then I won't have to listen to that music!).  The buses didn't line up, but this is sure to be an interesting trip.  While in Poland, I'll be staying with a polish couple tonight (wednesday), tomorrow I will be meeting a friend from my home area we are adventuring together until Sunday!!  Thursday is Czstochowa and the Black Madonna, Friday the Salt Mine and Auschwitz.  Then Friday night we head out for Cesky Tesin, a border town, where we like walk across a bridge from Poland into the Czech Republic and take a train to Praha!!  Then Saturday, Sunday, and just me Monday morning in Praha! :D

Wow, its now Friday night (really Saturday morning already!), I can't believe Poland passed so fast!  I quite like Poland and enjoy starting there with polish people of many kinds.  Wednesday night was quite nice, I found the couch surfing place I was staying with not too Mich trouble and went on up to their apartment, Marek and Kasia.  When I got there, there was only their apartment mate and 2 friends there, who I promptly miss took as Marek (who showed up a bit after me).  We had quite a bit of fun talking and telling stories when their friends were still there, and a while longer after as well!  We told travel stories (their's total beat mine), talked about ourselves a bit, school, countries, languages, history (but Kasia wasn't a real fan of history), and food,the product that everyone likes!  It was a fantastic experience and I am soooooooo glad that they took me on as a surfer, I don't think I could have an experience like that in a hostel (and perhaps they aren't as confused about someone as me, because I woke up early and changed, and laid in bed again, so was dressed when they got up and I with them).  Also I give them their first experience of damnsugare, and Swedish Fish.  Still not sure how they really liked them ;p.

Thursday morning I shared breakfast with them, or I should say they shared breakfast with me.  Kasia went off to work, but Marek stayed a while and helped me with knowing buses, maps, and what food I should get for that day.  We then went out, Marek to work, and I to find my friend I was to meet.  After fun with slow lines in both our cases, we got on a bus at 1120 to Częstochowa.  Częstochowa is the location of the apparition of Mary, the Black Madonna, Queen of Poland.  It was very nice, and we actually got to see the really thing!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, pictures!: {in next blog post}

We got back in time to take the bus we wanted, but we couldn't fine it!!!  So we went in to ask the lady about the buses.....no English.  So we went looking ourselves, and ended up using my tablet to translate one phase and I was able to use my polish for the rest!!!  I was able to order tickets both here and for when we left Friday night!!  Makes me feel like I'm getting better, at least a small bit :).

That night when we got back we went and dropped our things off at the hostel.  And went back to my host's apartment, where we talked awhile, then went out and saw a bit of the town, ate (zapiekanka!), and went to a pub, where I happened to have what I'll call miód piwo.  We had fun (along with a another friend of theirs that was staying that night) and ended up staying up until 2am!!  --the girls were all very tired though, so we went to out hostel, and them back home.  I did learn that I guess I don't have an American accent (Mallory did) but when I speak in Spanish I do ;p.

Friday!  Today was very long day, we had breakfast at the hostel, picked up for our tour, and first on the list was Auschwitz (Oświęcim in Polski).

This is the only picture I will put up of this portion of the trip.

Oświęcim, the polish name for what Germans later called Auschwitz, actually had 3 camps.  Auschwitz, Birkenau (the largest) and Monowitz (work camp for a chemical factory near by, IG Farben).  It was as hard as you can imagine going though.  They did not have nearly as many photos as the Holocaust museum in Washington DC, but I had and could put the two together.  While it was difficult to see these camps of death, I think it is a very important thing to see.

((Monday, and on my way home))

Some more things I remembered about the camps, Auschwitz was originally a Polish barracks.  The Nazis took it and changed it into what we know as a death camp, but I in Auschwitz there was only a small gas chamber (its sick, because small for them was 800 people could die at once), Birkenau was where the killing was quite bad, 2000 at once and there was 4 of these buildings.  But Auschwitz they did starvations and a form of hanging (twisted arms and hung from them), this is where Father Maximilian Kolbe died, (read about him if you don't know this saint, he is super awesome, I wish I could be as awesome as him).  You should go there yourself to learn more, but one last thing, only 144 people successfully escaped, but 800+ tried, and the punishment for either was harsh.

While the camps are very important, I would go see something fun afterwards like we did, we went and saw the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow.  Here they have made many cool statues out of the salt rock in the mine.  This mine also has a lot of history to it!  I guess even Nicklaus Copernicus visited the mine, and it has been a working mine 1200's to 2007!  It was a very good day, talked with Aussies the whole time, but it was to get longer!

Right after we were dropped off we went and saw the dragon, then continued on getting luggage and going to the bus station stopping at stores getting food along the way.  It was easy with the bus, it was sitting there already and we just meandered about until it was time and took the bus to Cieszyn, a border town, in which, with a bit of help from locals (why were they up at 1am walking about? -- but it was a very nice couple) we fro. The bridge that connected Poland and the Czech republic! (Javisst, we took photos!)

Once we found the interesting train station that had a man there to unlock the doors for us, and guys in the toilets to take money (which we had no CZK).  We finally got on the train and started on our way, Mallory just died in her seat and I was up a while, but just heard yesterday that I guess the ticket person came in again and I just didn't wake up at all!  Yay!  We got to Prague about 8AM, and started our journey!  We found our hostel (after finding a lot of other things as well) and received a map, so we went and saw such things as St. Charles Bridge, the castle, and the dancing towers.

At this point we went. Back to the hostel to plan the rest of our trip, we had received the holy grail of lists from Marek and Kasia.  It had the best food and drinks we needed to get, the best places, and the landmarks we needed to see!  So we got done plotting the course on our maps, went to drop stuff off in the room, and there was another guy there, Ocavio, a Mexican who was teaching Spanish in France.  I messed up his name for the first 20 minutes we knew him, so, for the sake of consistency, i shall call him Toby.  So I asked if he wanted to come along, and he did!  We had a good night going all the way across the city to a tiny little bar, a horse, and a night club thing....that was so loud that we just had food (and watched the door vibrate outside the dance hall area!).  It was quite a bit of fun, and I even had had a beer and a gulash that tasted like gravy!, and at the night club (Cross Klub), I had an odd fruit pizza dessert thing and homemade mint lemonade :).  So eventually got home and went to sleep!--- just for me to wake up with a start.....

Ever have one of those mornings where everything is right with the world?  Well, my Sunday was not that day, I woke up slow (we were up late) and I sat up in my second level bunk, and feel through to almost visit Mallory in the first level.  It was a great morning.  I got out of the bed and everyone woke up now (and laughing), so I made the most of it.  "I see you are all awake now, so good morning everyone!". And I went to breakfast.

Mallory and I went about a bit that morning and we were to meet Toby later at Mass.  Mass was at Our Lady Victorious, Child of Prague Church (where the child Jesus statue is located), and fancy that, it was the feast of the child Jesus!! I had not known this at all! So there were A LOT of people in the church, Mallory and I stood behind the pews, and Toby came later and stood near the doors of the church!  It was a very nice Mass and the homily was about love and a story of how there can be all the right parts in the thing (device), but they still have to be in the right place as well, and there is a right place for everything.

After Mass we went up into the park behind the church.  When I say up, it was UP!  It was quite the hike up the hill, but we got up Petrin Hill and we went up the tower on the top, it was certainly the best view we had of all of Prague, so we made sure to take lots of photos.  We decided it was high time for lunch and went to the next place on the grail.  Pivnice pod Petrinem:  a very nice restaurant where we ordered and we had no idea what we were going to get, because we were pretty sure we didn't understand what we said.  This is a point to bring up something else!  In Prague they write the price of something on a piece of paper and leave it at your table and put a tally every time you have something.  So we enjoyed out meal, but decided to have dessert, but none was there!  So we went to another one the grail, but none there either!--but they pointed us a round the corner to a chocolate place ( :D ).  I had a but cake and got some chocolate from Madagascar.  At this point Toby broke from us to go see the castle we had already seen the first day, and Mallory and I went back to the hostel and I dropped off Mallory on the metro soon after, for her flight was that night.

I continued off on my own that night and got to another landmark that night, another bar (no more beer, I wasn't feeling it at this point) but did have hehlsdeny hermelin, or pickled cheese.  It wasn't bad at all, in fact, I would eat it again.  On my way home I picked up some snacks for the bus ride home (that I'm on right now as I am writing this) and some becherovka.  I went back to the hostel, where Toby had also decided to turn in early.  I packed almost fully, had some of the becherovka, and sleep!!   I continued with some adventuring this morning, made Toby help me finish out the becherovka, and headed on out back to Sweden!

I very much enjoy my time in Poland, and especially in Prague (with the help of our "holy grail of Prague").  I feel like I just connected them all though, on the bus I ate polish kielbasa, on Czech bread, Swedish style (open face ;p).  It is nice to be going back to Sweden, but also sad because finals are coming very soon, and I will soon be missing my new friends here, but until then, let there be fun and studying!!!

There is a few things I need to go back and add to, and add photos, but I'm going to try and study the rest of my ride home.  Also, you need something to look forward to in the future!  I hope to get all done towards the end of the week.  One thing though, I was surprised how much I could read with the little polish I knew :).

Pa!

Blog ya later!