Krakow

Getting from Budapest to Krakow wasn’t as easy as we thought it’d be. The old-school flickering board announcing all the train departures and arrivals listed trains which should’ve already left. We were told not to worry (I guess this happens all the time in such cities?) so we stood around with some other Aussies heading to Krakow and eventually the board flickered over to our train sometime after it should’ve left. I should mention we were told not to worry by a random travel agent guy we hit up for information. The official information section was like the RTA – take a number and after we serve 20 people before you and after your train has left we’ll get to you. We went to the platform and were told the train was going to Moscow so then asked for a second opinion and eventually made it to the right carriage.

I woke up around 6am when the train should’ve been getting close to Krakow but we were stopped at a station called Bonhomie. Kinda weird to wake up with no idea of what country you’re in. I still don’t know what country it was but it would’ve been one of the ones between Hungary and Poland.

By 12.30 we arrived in Krakow only 6 hours late. The cool Polish chick at the hostel (Greg & Tom – highly recommended) sat us down to tell us how it is in her firm yet perfect English starting with: “Six hours late? I feel sorry for you.”

Getting there took so long that there’s only time to summarise what we did there….

Pierogi (cabbage & mushroom were best). Schnitzel. Duck. Tour buses. American tourists. Giant Westfield like shopping centre across the road from our hostel. Park surrounding the old town. Reading in the park. Castle. River. Churches. Contemporary Polish Photography. Cheesey traditional music live at restaurants. Yes, I mean piano accordian. Pope John Paul II tour (no, we didn’t do that). Cheap gelato. Jewish quarter. Trams. Produce markets with berries. Bikes.