Krakow and Bratislava

I got to Krakow at about 8:30 pm, having spent all day on the train, but I couldn't find the hostel until about 10. Didn't do much that night, got a pizza, chatted to a few other backpackers and went to bed.

The next morning I got the free breakfast, it was really good because they had loads of cheese spread and bread, so I ate a lot of sandwiches. Then I just wandered around town, went to the castle and the main square. I had a kebab for tea that was pretty good, lots of different stuff on it. I had another early night because I wanted to go to Auschwitz the next day, so I had a couple of beers and chatted to people back at the hostel. I arranged to get the bus with an american called Bryon to Auschwitz, but he said he was going to set off early. Bryon had been travelling for a couple of months around Europe, he had a three month rail pass and he had been to a new city pretty much everyday, getting the night train somewhere, getting off for the day, getting the night train somewhere else. In Oslo he'd even got a night train somewhere so he could sleep, then changed trains and got another night train back to Oslo, so that he didn't have to pay for a hostel.

I got up at 8:30 expecting Bryon to have left, he hadn't, so I got some cheese spread sandwiches and expected to head out. Bryon spent ages faffing around and we only left at about 9:45, then we were rushing for the bus and he was walking as if he had his shoe laces tied together, the smallest steps i've ever seen anyone take. We just about managed to get the bus, but I abandoned him shortly after arriving at Auschwitz, he was a pain in the arse and his stories about night trains were starting to annoy me. Auschwitz was as shocking as I expected it to be, I wont talk you through it all but there's one bit where they have all the hair of the female victims, and there's tonnes of it, and although its behind a glass wall, you can still smell it.

When I got back I met a guy called Henrik from Sweden. I destoryed him in two games of connect 4 and he decided he didn't want to play anymore. Then came the hostel's "shot night", me, Henrik, a Californian called Steve, two girls called Laura and Toni, and an older couple called Bob and Anne. After a few drinks I couldn't resist telling Bob that I had a dog called Bob, thankfully he took it the right way. After the shots me, Henrik, Steve, Toni and Laura went to a few bars, Toni and Laura left part way through, we had a couple more drinks and then Steve and Henrik had a Kebab, I was waiting so I could cash in on the cheese spread the next morning.

My last day in Poland. Steve had told me about Couch Surfing. It has a website like facebook, with profiles and pictures and stuff, but then If you ever go anywhere you can send a request to other surfers asking if you can stay with them, and others can do the same with you. Saturday happened to be the day of a big couch surfers picnic, so we went to it along with some other couch surfers that were staying in our hostel and had come to Krakow just for the couch surfing events. The picnic was incredible! There was about 150 people there, all chatting to each other, drinking and eating. There was also one Couch surfer who had earlier been to a supermarket and bought 200 quids worth of food and beer for everyone, I didn't get his name but I shook his hand. There was a barbecue, also paid for by the supermarket guy, someone else had brought a tight rope that you can put up between two trees, which everyone was having a go on, I only managed about 3 or 4 steps maximum whenever I tried it, I was rubbish. People were playing other games too. After that some couch surfers went to a party, I had to get the train later so decided against it. Me and Steve and a few other surfers went to a soup festival and got free soup, then we had a beer before I had to pick my stuff up from the hostel and get the train to Bratislava.

I actually had a bed this time on the night train, it cost about 8 pounds (I dunno where the pound sign is on this keyboard) to reserve it. There were 6 beds in the room, but only me and an Australian guy in it. Amongst the things he'd done were work in a pub in England and work in a restaurant in Bordeaux. I slept ok in the train this time, but it arrived in Bratislava at 5:40 so I had to get up early. As I knew nothing about Bratislava and had some time to kill, I saw something on a hill and decided to head towards it, I quickly went the wrong way and ended up just walking around the city untill a cafe opened so I could have breakfast, it was Sunday, so everywhere was pretty dead. At about 10 I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and headed towards the centre for a look round. It's a really nice place, and the castle is good, a lot better than the one in Krakow. Now that I had a map I also found my way to the thing I saw when I got off the train, it was a WW2 monument, not massively interesting, but had some good views of the city around it.

I wandered around the town at night to see if there was much going on, there wasn't, just lots and lots and lots and lots of couples, boring. I went back to the hostel and talked to a guy called Harry from Milton Keynes, then we both talked to a guy from Seattle, called Michael, and two Finnish guys who told me "Mita Vittua" which means W.T.F. in Finnish. After a few beers the Finnish guys decided we were all, along with a couple of british girls, going to a Karaoke bar. It was closed, Sunday, so we went to another bar they liked, it was closed, Sunday.... We all went back to the hostel, and one of the Finnish guys got a Guitar and played songs, he was really good, then Harry played Wonderwall, everyone sang along.

Today I checked out and got the train to Vienna, I hadn't planned on going to Vienna, but the train ride was only an hour. I'm here for two nights, then I go to Budapest, where I meet Michael again, as he is going there straight from Bratislava and we are in the same hostel.

And once again I can't put pictures on, I have to pay for the internet here, which sucks, and they have some really limited version of Linux on it that doesn't really give me access to anything apart from Firefox. I think the Budapest hostel has free net, so i'll try to do it there.

Mita Vittua