Ross - CS # 15

Another early morning for us. I'd done most of my packing last night but it was still hard to roll out of bed at 730. I didn't think the boys were actually going to get up that early, but they all did. Pawel wrote down which buses we could take to the train station and for a minute I thought he was going to let us venture into the cold, cruel world by ourselves :) But, as is their tendency, they assisted us to the last possible second. Jacek and Pawel each carried our smaller backpacks and walked to the bus station with us. Then they took the bus with us, walked to the train station, Pawel confirmed that we didn't need to reserve tickets (we were pretty sure we didn't...you usually don't for domestic, regular trains like this one), walked us to the platform, Pawel confirmed (again!) with a conductor that we didn't need to reserve tickets (we still didn't think we needed to), and finally Pawel gave us the go ahead that we could get on our train in our little second class car. Then he and Jacek returned our bags and we got onto the train.

The train ride was productive in that we used the time to work out details of the last part of our trip. I'm really excited for our "edits". Since we are having a really tough time finding hosts in Prague, we'll probably only stay four (hopefully five) days instead of seven, then we'll do more days than planned in both Berlin and Hamburg. That will be cool because we've heard so much about Berlin that it will be good to have a little more time there. Then we are shaving one or two days off of Copenhagen. One thing I've realized on this trip is that in four or five days, you do have enough time to see a lot of a city. And, the great news about all these edits is that it allows for a full week and a half in Sweden - where I will definitely get an amazing Scandinavian experience! - and for a full week and a half in France! With so much time in France, we are now thinking of going to Bordeaux (after Stockholm), and possibly popping into southern France for a few days. We have the Eurail space to make these trips since we're not going to Norway. And the train rides between Paris-Bordeaux-Southern France are all only like 3 hours. So: More time with family, less time on trains, and seeing new areas of France! AND not being rushed, and being able to speak the language for the last week and a half. I think it's great. Very excited; not heart broken at all :)

Off the train, Ross (shortened for our convenience from his actual Ukrainian name of Rostyslaw) was waiting on the platform with us with another Ukrainian friend of his named Hayla. Ross has TONS of energy and speaks English almost as fast as I do! He announced that he was having a bad day but seemed as cheerful as ever. He and Hayla, who had her car with her, drove us back to his flat. After Laura and I shared Pawel's twin bed for 5 nights, having a queen sized bed that could fit both of us looked like heaven in a mattress! After we dropped our stuff off, we set out to go boating. As we arrived at the docks, Ross's bad day got worse since another guest staying at his flat had lost their set of keys and needed to leave but had no way of locking the door. Frustrated, Ross left to back exactly where we just came from and Hayla, Laura and I took out a motor boat.

I got to learn how to steer the motor boat which was really fun though I think I may have freaked out the boat rental guy a little bit...woops! Wroclaw is called 'the city of a hundred islands and a thousand bridges', and there are tons of islands around the city center with multiple bridges connecting everything in a web like network. It was a sunny afternoon and we motor boated past the cathedral, and around some of the bridges, before turning and going back in the other direction for a while. I let Laura steer some because it actually took me quite a bit of concentration to make sure I wasn't going to crash, and I wanted to be able to relax and take pictures of the bridges and buildings! We only rented the boat for an hour, so soon we took it back to shore, safe and sound. We waited in the sun for Ross to come back and meet us, and when we were all together again we set off.

By then, it was dinner time, so we went to a convenience store and loaded up on chips, beer, bread, meat, and cheese. SO unhealthy it kind of drove me crazy, but we wanted to go have a picnic on "Student's Island" in the evening sun and most grocery stores were closed. Walking around, I noticed tons of cool murals and weird things drawn on the sides of buildings! This town is very cute. The architecture is all German (the city was given to Poland after WWII) but it's all really beautiful. The colors are great too, they really remind me of San Francisco.

Our picnic turned out great! Ross brought a picnic blanket (tarp on one side, fleece on the other) and we all sat and enjoyed our unhealthy meal. There were lots of young people sitting around, playing guitar, barbecuing, and just lounging on benches. It was a really great environment. Across the water you can see the university building and multiple bridges. I love that there are islands just in the middle of the city!!

As our picnic was wrapping up, my beer got quite comfortable in my bladder and soon I had to go to the bathroom quite badly. Normally, I would not write about such topics but - this got bad. Ross kept showing us cool little buildings and alleyways and more dwarfs and everything was very interesting and pretty. We passed by a restaurant and Hayla went in and asked if we could please use their bathroom. They said since we're not customers it would be 5 zloties (3 zloties = $1) for all three of us together. I said, screw it, I can hold it. Because sometimes I am just that frugal. And sometimes being frugal has terribly painful consequences. It was taking forever to walk to the bus stop, and once we got there, it was another 15 minutes before it was supposed to come. At this point, I was seriously getting nervous I would pee my pants. And how embarrassing would that be?! So I worked my kegel muscles and I held it in as hard as I could. Finally the bus came, and that 10-15 minutes of riding the bus and walking to Ross's flat felt like hours to me...I had to go so badly. Finally - I MADE IT! Woohoo! Anyway, the three of them enjoyed making fun of me a great deal I think; I looked pretty ridiculous hopping around trying to keep myself all together...

And that really was the last eventful thing to happen today. Then we went to bed to get ready for our only full day in Wroclaw the next day!


Quotes:
"We need to go get some drinks so that I can delete my bad day." - Ross
Aww...foreigners' English; Love the phrases they come up with!

Accomplishment:
Didn't pee my pants.

Travel Tip:
Just PAY $1 to go to the bathroom!