Miles logged: 5,212
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Krakow and I did not get off to a good start, but I think all will be well - or at least let's hope so, because I'm here for 4 nights.
I spent the morning lingering in Budapest, wandering the streets and drinking a latte on St. Stephen's square, before making my way to the bus station. The bus to Krakow took a total of 7 hours, and passed through Slovakia, which was beautiful and looked like a great place to ski. The ride was bumpy and windy, but fortunately, I had good company. During my tour of Budapest, I had met a Canadian traveler named Shannon, who is from Toronto and in-between law school and a masters degree program. Shannon also decided to take the bus to Krakow on Friday, so we ran into each other at the bus station, and we were able to get seats together for the long ride. Good conversation made the ride much more pleasant, and we finally arrived in Krakow around 10pm. As the bus pulled into the city, my first impression of Krakow was of a generic, European metropolis - the bus station was next to a giant shopping mall, and there was nothing interesting or different about the city at all; it reminded me a lot of very urban Berlin.
After getting off the bus, Shannon and I set off to find our respective hostels. As we approached the turn for my hostel, I agreed to meet Shannon at her hostel in 20 minutes to grab some dinner. As I made my way down the street for my hostel, I started to wish I were back in central Philadelphia, because that might have been a little less scary. On the corner of the street were what appeared to be two young hookers with an older woman watching on nearby, along with a couple of stray, shady male characters, one that crossed the street and started walking behind me on the sidewalk after I passed. I broke a new speed record of walking while saddled with my very heavy dufflebag, but after I had reached the end of the block the area became better lit and near a busy road. I found my hostel, and extremely relieved, made my way up the stairs. As I walked into the reception, I was greeted by a party in full swing - apparently Friday nights are "Polish shot night." As the very noisy party raged on in the common room, I checked into my bed to find one older woman in the bunk below mine sleeping (how???), and another guy in the room calmly reading his Kindle (again, how???, and where's this guy's room?). While paying, the receptionist also let me know that the hot water in the showers was currently not working and probably wouldn't be back on until Monday. I threw down my bags and got the heck out -- I had barely recovered from the scary street and really didn't need the screaming party (although I will give them credit, they were a very friendly screaming party). I eschwed the dreaded scary street for the main road and made the 5 minute walk to Shannon's hostel, and we headed towards the Market area to grab dinner. Unfortunately, most of the restaurants were already closed, so we had to settle (or not really settle) for another round of Turkish street food, which I have now officially determined is the favorite of all of Europe.
The trip to the beautiful market square, along with an excellent $3 dinner followed by a $1.25 0.5 liter beer helped to greatly improve my mood. Krakow is beautiful but the entire town appears to be on a massive pub crawl, which I guess is understandable given that it was a Friday night and a pint of Polish beer costs about a $1. The prices for food and drink are insanely cheap (except for Diet Coke, that's the same price as in the United States). I ended up having a rather nice couple of hours with Shannon, and I made my way back to the hostel to find that it was now pin-drop quiet, and the Kindle guy was gone, so I crawled up the ladder over the still sleeping old woman and hoped that tomorrow would be better (and that the hot water would return soon).
I don't have any pictures of the day to share (I might have one of Slovakia on my camera to share later), but I did get more photos of Belgium and Germany uploaded. They are here:
Belgium: https://picasaweb.google.com/105899454615652413823/Belgium?feat=directlink
Germany: https://picasaweb.google.com/105899454615652413823/CologneAndBerlin?feat=directlink
Budapest pictures are coming soon!
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