Spring is finally here.. warm weather means being able to go outside and not freeze instantly.
So this past weekend was our Easter break, and it was a memorable one to say the least. Britt, Frank, Gina, Ashley, and I decided we wanted to take advantage of our long weekend. (we actually get thursday, friday, AND monday off!) So we decided we would make a trip to Poland, Krakow to be exact.
The train ride is about 9 hours, so the best way to get there is to get an overnight train. So on Wednesday night we all met up at the train station in Prague ready to go, but when we got to the ticket counter there were no more sleeping cars available on the train. (now in our defense, we were going to reserve them before, but we heard from some very experienced traveler's and friends that we wouldnt need to.) So we had to settle for one compartment with no beds for the 5 of us for 9 hours. We knew this wouldnt be fun... so frank and I did the only reasonable thing.
Bought beer.
However, even the beer did not help after a few hours when everyone wanted to sleep.. without going into many details.. either make sure to get a sleeping car.. or agree that no one will sleep, because except for britt, who can sleep through and on anything.. it was a miserable miserable night.
However, we arrived the next morning in Krakow and made our way to our hostel. Granted it was 6 in the morning, and no one except britt had got any sleep to speak of. and we wanted to crash for a few hours, but sadly we couldnt check in until noon... so we had 6 hours of walking around.
So we decided to go find breakfast. So we went and got money out of the ATM and thus began the 20 ours of complete and uter confusion. See.. to convert from US dollars to Czech Crowns to Polish zloty (which we continued to forget the name of, so we started just calling them Polskis .. which is actually what you call just polish people.. like Americans or Czechs. The girl at the hostel front desk didnt think it was too funny) got very very VERY confusing... I still blame it on the lack of sleep.
So we went to breakfast and when we got our bill we started converting the money and what the general consinsus was that the food in Poland was extremely expensive. our average meal was 300 crowns (or about 15 dollars).. we couldnt believe it.
So we realized we werent going to be able to eat out much while we were there. So for the rest of the day we walked around beautiful Krakow. Saw the biggest Market Square Center in all of Europe, covered in booths and decorations getting ready for Easter. It was awesome, but extremely expensive for everything. We were starting to freak out a little and thinking we might have to cut our trip short because we didnt want to spend that much money for 3 days.
However, that night Gina... level headed Gina... realizes that we were converting everything totally wrong, and that meal that was 300 crowns... was actually about 100. We are idiots.
So with renewed spirits and an abundance of cash! we spent the next 2 days walking around the city and even going out to visit Auchwitz which I reccomend to anyone. It is a very sobering place that no one can understand until they go. Ashley's friend maggie (who also teaches in Czech) even met up with us. So Saturday night we get on the train to go back.. and what follows is a crazy story.
Ashley, Frank, Britt, Me, Gina
This amazing looking kid playing the accordian on the street.
The beginning of the epic train robbery
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