We woke up with plenty of time to finish our packing and were out of the house by around 11 to catch our 1:05 PM train to Prague. We were extremely pleased with our good timing. However...when we got to the train station to look up which platform to go to, there was indeed a train leaving at 1:05, but it wasn't to Prague. In fact, we couldn't find any departures that listed Prague as a destination. Dun Dun DUUUNNNNN!!!!!
Chaos ensued and we got stuck in Poland. Please read further for details, or skip the entire next paragraph.
The train listed at 1:05 PM was to Dresden. Laura had looked up the train right before we left, and could have SWORN that there was a 1:05 train to Prague. And we were for sure at the right station. She didn't know if the train route she looked up had included a transfer anywhere - she thought it was a direct train. So, we go to the information desk. There are TONS of people there and the slowest information people I've ever seen. After finally getting to the front, Ross speaks in Polish for us (bless him) and tries to figure out how to get to Prague. The guy says, 'take that 1:05 train to Dresden and then you can transfer there to a train to Prague.' By this time, It's about 12:40 ish. So, we go back to our platform, find the train to Dresden, Ross comes up, puts our bags on the racks, we find our seats, etc. Getting all settled. But I felt extremely uneasy about it. I asked Ross if he could just check with one more person that this was a train to get to Prague. So Ross asked the people sitting around us, and a woman shook her head and started speaking very quickly. Ross said, 'no, this train is not going to Prague, it is only going to Dresden.' So I'm still thinking - how the heck do we get to Prague, or are we really supposed to go through Dresden to transfer...?? Then, we decided that must be it, Laura's route definitely said 1:05 from this station, so we must be on the right train. With 10 minutes to spare; awesome. BUT, then I asked Laura, "Isn't Dresden in Germany?" She didn't know. And I said, "Yeah...I am pretttty sure Dresden is in Germany. We can't take this train, we have to get off." Ross comes back on the train (he'd gone to ask a conductor for more information), he confirms that Dresden is in Germany, and I tell him we need to get off right away. So he gets all of our bags off the racks and pack mules them back to the platform. Why couldn't we take this train? Because the specific Eurail pass that we were using only covers central Europe (which includes Poland and the Czech Republic - NOT Germany). The whole reason we BOUGHT the Eurail pass for central Europe was because getting into and out of Poland is for some reason egregiously expensive. So we did NOT want to go to Germany with an invalid pass, have to pay a fatty fine, and then use our other Eurail pass (that covers the rest of western Europe) to get from Dresden to Prague. This was a total disaster because we need all the other trips on our western European Eurail pass, and we bought the central pass primarily to get into and out of Poland. Which further complicates things, because we could have taken a bus for 40 Euros, but again - it totally defeated the purpose of buying the freaking Eurail pass. SOOOO Ross stands in line and argues and battles in Polish on our behalf at the information desks for like 2 hours!!! All we were trying to figure out was how the heck do we get from freaking Wroclaw to freaking Prague without going through freaking Germany?!?!?! These are the things you can't plan for. We looked it up, but...apparently there are ZERO direct trains. And Polish info people are crazy slow and for some reason clueless about where their stupid trains go!!! In the end, Ross was our champion and savior and I don't know what we would have done with out him. Actually I do. We would have ended up in Germany, wasting our rail pass, getting fined, and probably crying. It would have been awful. Ross found a way for us to take a 6 AM train tomorrow morning to a small town in the Czech Republic, and from there, transfer to a train that would go to Prague. 6 AM = bummer, but all we cared about was not going through Germany. He let us stay at his place an extra night (which is what he was debating for last night and this morning, so I don't think he was too upset), and back to his flat we went. We arrived back home at 3 PM after leaving at 11. It was a complete waste of a day, we were all exhausted, annoyed, and just plain drain from so many things going wrong and so many bad surprises coming out of nowhere. It was funny because I had those moments on SAS, and I would always listen to this song called Puddles that a friend of mine named Nick wrote/played/sang. I listened to it all the time, especially with Meredith and Katherine in Egypt. It was always comforting. As we were walking from the bus station back to the train station, I was about to cross the street, but had to step around a puddle. The puddle reminded me of the song, and I pulled out my iPod for some miraculous musical calming of the traveling soul. It was a good moment.
At Ross' place, we emailed our CouchSurfer in Prague to say, Hey, we're stuck in Poland, but thanks anyway. Laura, who is on the verge of getting sick, slept while I attempted to catch up on personal things. Nick happened to be online and I told him about how comforting his song was to me today. It's awesome to tell things like that to SAS people because the fact that I'm stuck in Poland isn't a huge shock...it's just what happened today; and they get that. The Nate also got online from his crazy yacht trip currently docked in Bali and after talking with some SASsers and writing long overdue replies to friends back home I felt much better. Things continued to improve when Ross told us he now had time to make us a traditional Ukrainian dinner (he didn't have time yesterday) and that tonight there was a beer festival (which turned out to be Juwenalia all over again (seriously) just in a different city - it happens at different times in different cities in Poland). I like to think that things happen for a reason, and if you're going to be stuck in Poland, having an awesome host cook you a traditional meal and take you to a beer festival isn't the worst way to be stuck.
The meal he made us was Borscht, which is a type of soup. I think it has a beet base, and it had lots of carrots and cabbage in it. You eat it with a dollop of sour cream on top too. I was really scared I wouldn't like it which would have been terrible because Ross spent like 2 hours making it. BUT, I of course tried it and it was Really good!!! So YAY for new food!
Then, we went to Juwenalia by Ross's university. We had to take THE most packed bus ride I have ever experienced to make it there. I kind of thought I was going to suffocate - there were people touching me on all four sides and there was no need to hold on to anything. Super intense and pretty funny to witness and be a part of. Juwenalia here was crazy, definitely, but not nearly the jaw dropping scene in Krakow. Here, you were not allowed to bring your own beer in (so there were tons of kids lining the fences drinking their own beer) and all the beer inside is of course over prices. Since we were taking a 6 AM train we didn't want anything anyway. Of course tons of kids were there, and we found some of Ross's friends who offered us some Amazing Polish sausages fresh and hot off the grill. So good. The big show tonight was a light show that took place on one of the dorm buildings. There are lights in every room's window, and some high tech company does this funky light show. Some super weird stuff! A lot of it was in Polish, or Polish childhood songs, or Polish jokes that aren't even funny to people not from Poland (even if they speak Polish). So we understood very little, but the lights created characters that danced and made smily faces and spelled words out. One of my favorites was when the lights made a stick figure Michael Jackson, and had it dance to MJ music for like 30 seconds before pretending it was a video game and flashing the words: DEMO across the dorm wall. Super funny. Anyway, it was a bit anticlimactic but great fun. Oh yeah, and all four of Ross's roommates (who I think were scared of us) came along and they were actually so fun to hang out with. Not like we could understand them, they were just goofy and funny!
Trying to get out of the Juwenalia madness after the light show was insane. Ross kept saying, 'stay close' and we did, but somehow still lost him and #5 (roommate) in the crowd. But, #2, 3 and 4 had kept an eye on us and ushered us into a clearing and walked with us up the street. We knew we were farther ahead than Ross and #5 so we waited for them and eventually they found us. Since it was late, it took forever to get home. We didn't make it back til 1 AM...so we settled in for a quick 4 hour nap...
Accomplishments:
Getting stuck in Poland...?
Travel Tip:
CHECK CONNECTIONS!!!
Showing posts with label Wroclaw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wroclaw. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Dwarfs
This morning started out relatively slow - there's not that much to do per se in Wroclaw. Most people say one day is enough. However, it is such a gorgeous little town that I could easily spend more than one day just wandering around admiring the architecture. At any rate, we were in no rush.
By the time we got to the main square area, we decided to look for breakfast/lunch. We kept seeing chalkboards advertising "omlettys" which we really hoped meant omlettes. I haven't seen any American breakfast food advertised like that the whole trip! It was kind of yucky weather so we found an omletty place and sat inside. An omelet sounded great, but so did a cheese, ham, and lettuce "tosty" (small sandwich). So, naturally, I just got both. That's the beauty of being an American in Poland - food is cheap. For the (seemingly) millionth time, my food arrived, and my freaking sandwich had a freaking LAYER of mushrooms on the bottom. Again. SERIOUSLY POLAND? Why do you keep doing this to me? What is your obsession with NOT putting mushrooms on the menu and then putting them on ALL of my food?? I don't get it. Bah. That aside, breakfast was great.
Then the cool stuff starts. Ross had a great idea yesterday for us to post on CouchSurfing, within a Wroclaw message board group, that we were in town and wanted to be shown around. Ross had school so he was busy until 6. Luckily for us, a really nice girl named Marta responded to our message and agreed to meet us in the city center at noon. Then, on our way to meet her, somebody else called us (Ross let us borrow a phone, whose number we posted on our CS message board post), and also wanted to meet up. His name was Karol and he was new to CS. I looooove helping newbies get acquainted with the beautiful world of CS. So then the four of us bummed around all day and got our own little private tour. Marta has been really involved with CS for quite some time and is about to graduate university, so she knew a lot about the buildings and things that we saw. Karol is in his first year at university and knew much of the same things Marta did. It was so awesome to pal around with locals and explore the cute city.
Ross had also told us that the city had tons of dwarfs - somewhere between 50 and 100 - all around the inner city. These dwarfs are little miniature statues that decorate the outsides of lucky buildings. I got totally sucked into this adorable trap and was searching for dwarfs all day. I now have way too many dwarf pictures on my camera - but they're all so cute! And they're all doing different things. The dwarf outside of the bank is depositing a little dwarf check. The dwarf outside of the kiosk is selling newspapers. The dwarf outside of the casino is rolling dice. How cute is that?! I was in love.
Some things that Marta/Karol taught us...the main square in Wroclaw is the second largest in Poland and in Europe; the first largest is the main square in Krakow where we just came from. Both squares are unique in that they have a large building, the town hall, in the middle of them; most squares are void of buildings in the middle. Then we passed by the most popular meeting point in the city. It used to be used as a flogging pole, so that's gross. But, now people just meet up there and sit on the steps. The date on it is 1492 (I think), but it's cool because it's so old that the 4 is written as half of an 8 (kind of like the shape of an awareness ribbon or something). There's also another 'meeting point' where girls tell guys to meet them if the girl doesn't want a relationship but just wants to meet up platonically. So the guy says, "hey let's hang out" and the girl says, "ok, meet me at this place that signifies that we'll just be friends," and that's the guy's way of knowing that he's been romantically rejected. Haha. They also pointed out a bridge to us that they used to throw witches off of. Great. Then they took us by this hilarious fountain in the university area. The legend says that the first virgin to graduate from university will cause the naked man atop the fountain to fall off. He's been up there for centuries. Legends are so fun haha. After that, we went to their main university building - which was GORGEOUS! There was a crazy picture of the exact same building in 1944 after WWII bombings had ruined quite a lot of it, and a newer picture from 2006 or something showing the current building. Incredibly impressive how they were able to preserve the ruins and build it up again to be how beautiful it is. Then we walked across the cutest bridge in the world. All along the railings of both sides are locks. The locks have lovers' names written on them and sometimes a date. Couples go to this bridge to put their lock on it, and then throw the key into the river below. HOW CUTE!?!! I really love this town. The railings are just FILLED with locks, it's amazing! Close to the other end of the bridge is the main huge cathedral in Wroclaw. This also got bombed by the Nazis when they were fighting with the Soviets over who would get the city. There's a picture inside the cathedral of the cathedral after the bombing with literally no roof and sunlight pouring in. Really crazy to see all this stuff in person. After this Marta took her leave and we thanked her graciously for kickin' it with us for the afternoon.
Then Karol, the newbie, was stuck with us! Haha. Not really. He was such a nice guy, and totally unnecessarily paranoid that we were bored of him or didn't want him there or that he was being a bad tour guide. Every 5 minutes we had to be like, 'dude, relax! We like you!' He was super funny and a total gentleman. He walked us to the famous panorama in Wroclaw. The panorama is a really old painting that depicts a war scene between Poland and Russia. During WWII, the canvas was all taken down, rolled up, and stored in a basement to preserve it. After the war, they brought it out again. It is super cool because it is a 360 degree painting that took I think 3 lead painters and all their minions 9 months to complete. Then, it gets cooler, because the painting is partially 3D. Not only is it panoramic, but the museum has it so that real-life-type artifacts blend in with and come out of the painting. So, for example, there was dust/sand/gravel/grasses that seemed to just pop out of the bottom of the painting. In the bramble were broken wagons, a sword, an old fire pit, etc. I'm really glad we went to it and learned a little Polish history.
Karol, who had already seen it multiple times on school field trips, picked us up promptly when it was over :) Then, knowing us so well, took us to his favorite ice cream shop! Yes, he was a keeper. I tried green apple ice cream (weird, but good!) and some creme ice cream that is a favorite among Poles. Yum yum. After ice cream we strolled back to Students' Island, where we were yesterday evening. We hung out on a park bench looking out at the river and the island across the way and chatted. I wrote postcards and Karol entertained us with his quirky humor and stories. He almost felt like our private stand up comedian, it was so great! Ross met us at the park, and the baby sitters traded shifts :) Haha. Karol went home and Ross took us on a slight detour on the way back to his place. We went to an old meat market where they used to kill animals, and now there are sculptures of all the animals they used to kill there with a plaque apologizing for killing them.
At home, Ross whipped up some pasta for dinner. Sometime, somehow, around making dinner, it was decided that Ross was "Daddy", Laura was "Mama", and I was the child, obviously. I think this came about because there was this yogurt that Laura and I bought. She ate her half on the train yesterday and I hadn't gotten around to eating mine yet. Ross (jokingly, I think) wanted it out of his fridge, and was trying to make me eat it before dinner and before I could have a beer with dinner. I think this is when he said, "Daddy says so. No yogurt, no beer." It was kind of creepy but more funny than anything. After that, there were lots of references to Daddy saying something and Mama either agreeing or not. Really bizarre. The things we come up with to entertain ourselves...During the course of dinner, I obviously managed to spill spaghetti sauce on my grey nylon pants which means they are officially dirty (they were definitely already dirty, it was just less in-your-face before). Which means, since I avoid wearing my jeans since they're fragile due to all the ripping and almost ripping occurring in less than ideal places, I had to resort to the ugly green nylon pants I'm borrowing from my wonderful sister.
Finally, dinner was over, ugly green pants were on, and Ross was taking us out to some bars. We did the most literal definition of bar-hopping ever. There were maybe 7 all within a few steps from each other. Ross just kept saying, "Go in, see you if you like it, tell me if you want to stay." So we popped into bar after bar after bar and then naturally realized that we liked the first bar the best. This first bar was called the Old Sofa, and was filled with mismatches sofas, seats, and armchairs. We chose a cozy spot on the second level and soon Karol joined up with us. The four of us had a splendid evening enjoying one last night of Polish beer and funny, CouchSurfing/travel-related stories. Eventually, we were the only people left (it was a Monday night, after all) and the bar kicked us kids out. We went back through a couple other bars, stopping at one to dance for maybe 20 minutes or so. Then, without any of us buying a drink, we simply decided to move on and it was no problem, we just walked out! Amazing. Then we went to the main square which was all lit up with glowing streetlights. The fountain in the middle looked especially amazing with the orange colors of night gleaming off the glass and shimmery water. Then we parted ways with Karol and the three of us went home.
It was actually very sad because Ross kept saying multiple times how sad he was that we were leaving. He tried to talk us into staying longer, like up to two months longer. And we were like, sorry dude, we're going to Prague. But he seemed so genuinely sad and kept calling us his favorite CouchSurfers! (I think he's only had one other surfer though lol.) Nonetheless, we did what packing we could before crashing for the night.
Quotes:
"Bud'mo; Hey! Bud'mo; Hey! Bud'mo, Bud'mo, Bud'mo; Hey!"
(Ukrainian cheers-song that Karol taught us so that we could impress Ross, who is Ukrainian. Bud'mo is pronounced "boo-jee-mah". Very fun to chant. I wish we had drinking songs/chats/cheers. Cheers is boring.)
Accomplishments:
Found so many dwarfs!!!
Travel Tip:
Networking is important even when traveling...putting ourselves out there on that message board really paid off!!
By the time we got to the main square area, we decided to look for breakfast/lunch. We kept seeing chalkboards advertising "omlettys" which we really hoped meant omlettes. I haven't seen any American breakfast food advertised like that the whole trip! It was kind of yucky weather so we found an omletty place and sat inside. An omelet sounded great, but so did a cheese, ham, and lettuce "tosty" (small sandwich). So, naturally, I just got both. That's the beauty of being an American in Poland - food is cheap. For the (seemingly) millionth time, my food arrived, and my freaking sandwich had a freaking LAYER of mushrooms on the bottom. Again. SERIOUSLY POLAND? Why do you keep doing this to me? What is your obsession with NOT putting mushrooms on the menu and then putting them on ALL of my food?? I don't get it. Bah. That aside, breakfast was great.
Then the cool stuff starts. Ross had a great idea yesterday for us to post on CouchSurfing, within a Wroclaw message board group, that we were in town and wanted to be shown around. Ross had school so he was busy until 6. Luckily for us, a really nice girl named Marta responded to our message and agreed to meet us in the city center at noon. Then, on our way to meet her, somebody else called us (Ross let us borrow a phone, whose number we posted on our CS message board post), and also wanted to meet up. His name was Karol and he was new to CS. I looooove helping newbies get acquainted with the beautiful world of CS. So then the four of us bummed around all day and got our own little private tour. Marta has been really involved with CS for quite some time and is about to graduate university, so she knew a lot about the buildings and things that we saw. Karol is in his first year at university and knew much of the same things Marta did. It was so awesome to pal around with locals and explore the cute city.
Ross had also told us that the city had tons of dwarfs - somewhere between 50 and 100 - all around the inner city. These dwarfs are little miniature statues that decorate the outsides of lucky buildings. I got totally sucked into this adorable trap and was searching for dwarfs all day. I now have way too many dwarf pictures on my camera - but they're all so cute! And they're all doing different things. The dwarf outside of the bank is depositing a little dwarf check. The dwarf outside of the kiosk is selling newspapers. The dwarf outside of the casino is rolling dice. How cute is that?! I was in love.
Some things that Marta/Karol taught us...the main square in Wroclaw is the second largest in Poland and in Europe; the first largest is the main square in Krakow where we just came from. Both squares are unique in that they have a large building, the town hall, in the middle of them; most squares are void of buildings in the middle. Then we passed by the most popular meeting point in the city. It used to be used as a flogging pole, so that's gross. But, now people just meet up there and sit on the steps. The date on it is 1492 (I think), but it's cool because it's so old that the 4 is written as half of an 8 (kind of like the shape of an awareness ribbon or something). There's also another 'meeting point' where girls tell guys to meet them if the girl doesn't want a relationship but just wants to meet up platonically. So the guy says, "hey let's hang out" and the girl says, "ok, meet me at this place that signifies that we'll just be friends," and that's the guy's way of knowing that he's been romantically rejected. Haha. They also pointed out a bridge to us that they used to throw witches off of. Great. Then they took us by this hilarious fountain in the university area. The legend says that the first virgin to graduate from university will cause the naked man atop the fountain to fall off. He's been up there for centuries. Legends are so fun haha. After that, we went to their main university building - which was GORGEOUS! There was a crazy picture of the exact same building in 1944 after WWII bombings had ruined quite a lot of it, and a newer picture from 2006 or something showing the current building. Incredibly impressive how they were able to preserve the ruins and build it up again to be how beautiful it is. Then we walked across the cutest bridge in the world. All along the railings of both sides are locks. The locks have lovers' names written on them and sometimes a date. Couples go to this bridge to put their lock on it, and then throw the key into the river below. HOW CUTE!?!! I really love this town. The railings are just FILLED with locks, it's amazing! Close to the other end of the bridge is the main huge cathedral in Wroclaw. This also got bombed by the Nazis when they were fighting with the Soviets over who would get the city. There's a picture inside the cathedral of the cathedral after the bombing with literally no roof and sunlight pouring in. Really crazy to see all this stuff in person. After this Marta took her leave and we thanked her graciously for kickin' it with us for the afternoon.
Then Karol, the newbie, was stuck with us! Haha. Not really. He was such a nice guy, and totally unnecessarily paranoid that we were bored of him or didn't want him there or that he was being a bad tour guide. Every 5 minutes we had to be like, 'dude, relax! We like you!' He was super funny and a total gentleman. He walked us to the famous panorama in Wroclaw. The panorama is a really old painting that depicts a war scene between Poland and Russia. During WWII, the canvas was all taken down, rolled up, and stored in a basement to preserve it. After the war, they brought it out again. It is super cool because it is a 360 degree painting that took I think 3 lead painters and all their minions 9 months to complete. Then, it gets cooler, because the painting is partially 3D. Not only is it panoramic, but the museum has it so that real-life-type artifacts blend in with and come out of the painting. So, for example, there was dust/sand/gravel/grasses that seemed to just pop out of the bottom of the painting. In the bramble were broken wagons, a sword, an old fire pit, etc. I'm really glad we went to it and learned a little Polish history.
Karol, who had already seen it multiple times on school field trips, picked us up promptly when it was over :) Then, knowing us so well, took us to his favorite ice cream shop! Yes, he was a keeper. I tried green apple ice cream (weird, but good!) and some creme ice cream that is a favorite among Poles. Yum yum. After ice cream we strolled back to Students' Island, where we were yesterday evening. We hung out on a park bench looking out at the river and the island across the way and chatted. I wrote postcards and Karol entertained us with his quirky humor and stories. He almost felt like our private stand up comedian, it was so great! Ross met us at the park, and the baby sitters traded shifts :) Haha. Karol went home and Ross took us on a slight detour on the way back to his place. We went to an old meat market where they used to kill animals, and now there are sculptures of all the animals they used to kill there with a plaque apologizing for killing them.
At home, Ross whipped up some pasta for dinner. Sometime, somehow, around making dinner, it was decided that Ross was "Daddy", Laura was "Mama", and I was the child, obviously. I think this came about because there was this yogurt that Laura and I bought. She ate her half on the train yesterday and I hadn't gotten around to eating mine yet. Ross (jokingly, I think) wanted it out of his fridge, and was trying to make me eat it before dinner and before I could have a beer with dinner. I think this is when he said, "Daddy says so. No yogurt, no beer." It was kind of creepy but more funny than anything. After that, there were lots of references to Daddy saying something and Mama either agreeing or not. Really bizarre. The things we come up with to entertain ourselves...During the course of dinner, I obviously managed to spill spaghetti sauce on my grey nylon pants which means they are officially dirty (they were definitely already dirty, it was just less in-your-face before). Which means, since I avoid wearing my jeans since they're fragile due to all the ripping and almost ripping occurring in less than ideal places, I had to resort to the ugly green nylon pants I'm borrowing from my wonderful sister.
Finally, dinner was over, ugly green pants were on, and Ross was taking us out to some bars. We did the most literal definition of bar-hopping ever. There were maybe 7 all within a few steps from each other. Ross just kept saying, "Go in, see you if you like it, tell me if you want to stay." So we popped into bar after bar after bar and then naturally realized that we liked the first bar the best. This first bar was called the Old Sofa, and was filled with mismatches sofas, seats, and armchairs. We chose a cozy spot on the second level and soon Karol joined up with us. The four of us had a splendid evening enjoying one last night of Polish beer and funny, CouchSurfing/travel-related stories. Eventually, we were the only people left (it was a Monday night, after all) and the bar kicked us kids out. We went back through a couple other bars, stopping at one to dance for maybe 20 minutes or so. Then, without any of us buying a drink, we simply decided to move on and it was no problem, we just walked out! Amazing. Then we went to the main square which was all lit up with glowing streetlights. The fountain in the middle looked especially amazing with the orange colors of night gleaming off the glass and shimmery water. Then we parted ways with Karol and the three of us went home.
It was actually very sad because Ross kept saying multiple times how sad he was that we were leaving. He tried to talk us into staying longer, like up to two months longer. And we were like, sorry dude, we're going to Prague. But he seemed so genuinely sad and kept calling us his favorite CouchSurfers! (I think he's only had one other surfer though lol.) Nonetheless, we did what packing we could before crashing for the night.
Quotes:
"Bud'mo; Hey! Bud'mo; Hey! Bud'mo, Bud'mo, Bud'mo; Hey!"
(Ukrainian cheers-song that Karol taught us so that we could impress Ross, who is Ukrainian. Bud'mo is pronounced "boo-jee-mah". Very fun to chant. I wish we had drinking songs/chats/cheers. Cheers is boring.)
Accomplishments:
Found so many dwarfs!!!
Travel Tip:
Networking is important even when traveling...putting ourselves out there on that message board really paid off!!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
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!
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!
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