Krakow

Our last day in Krakow started with a trip to the bakery next door. We ate in a park on our way to the castle, which is "arguably the site to see in Krakow." We walked the steps up to the castle and were greeted by a large, metal, fire-breathing dragon, which seemed to double as a children's jungle gym. We continued up the hill and walked around the castle grounds. We toured the beautiful statesrooms with marble floors and staircases and lavish ceilings. When buying our tickets for the states room we also purchased tickets to visit the dragon's den. We got to a small opening with a lady standing out front taking tickets and she told us to enter through the small door, which started our lengthy trip down the nauseating, spiral staircase. Finally we got to the bottom, where it was chilly but definitley a site to see. It was an underground cave and we had fun walking through it.

We then returned to our hostel to do some much needed laundry. Instead we fell asleep and decided to do laundry when we woke up because it would take 2 hours per load. We woke up around 7 and put a load of laundry in. Nicole and Franki went to the train station to buy our tickets to Bratislava, while Denise and Amanda stayed behind to "finish up the laundry." After finally buying tickets on the tram after looking for a ticket booth forever, Nicole and Franki were on their way to the train station. They were given a nice surprise at the ticket counter because they found out that they needed the passports to make the reservations, which were in the hostel... of course. By the time they got back to the hostel empty handed (2 hours later) they figured they would have some laundry done. Unfortunaly the first load was still not done... and wouldn't be done for another hour... so they said. Many rounds of euchre later the laundry was still not done... now it was about midnight. We decided to go to bed and pack our laundry in the morning. The one laundry load that consisted of three pants, five tank-tops and some underwear took an amazing 6 hours to complete. Needless to say the majority of our clothes are still dirty.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

This was our hardest visit yet. We feel it was an important site to see and are glad we went, although many tears were shed.

FAND mail

Previously this blog only allowed members to leave comments... now that we are finally sitting at a computer in English we've been able to change it so anyone can leave a message... so please feel free to leave comments :)!

Public Transportaion Issues...

After our Warsaw detour we arrived in Krakow ready to embrace Poland. We first tried to hale a taxi but apparently taxi drivers here aren't hungry for buisness and left us on the side of the road. Frustrated, we decided to find our way using public transportation. Nicole approached the ticket office to find out exactly how to get to our hostel and purchased our tickets. We waited forever for our tram and had to cross two lanes of traffic in order to get on.

At our second stop we noticed a man checking tickets... even though he looked like a civilian. We were so relieved that we had bought the tickets, had them validated and had them ready to hand to the man. After handing him the tickets, the man still wanted more. Apparently our bags also needed tickets to ride the tram. We tried explaining that we had no idea and we had just arrived. They would not hear it and handed Nicole the fine slip, 72 zitis a bag. Nicole tried to pay him the 10 zitis that it would have cost to bring the bags with us, but he insisted that he wasn't a ticket booth and threatened to call the police.

At our stop, the ticket checker and his sidekick (who kept asking Nicole for our passports... to which she continued to ignore) escorted us off the tram. They took us to an ATM so we could withdraw money because naturally we told them we had no money to pay the fine. Franki and Nicole went into the bank. Franki distracted the ticketcheckers by pretending to use the ATM while Nicole attempted to ask a banker if we were being scammed but he didn't speak English. Denise and Amanda remained outside with Amanda desperatley attempting to cry. The girls walked out of the bank and while Nicole asked to see their identity badges, Amanda instructed Franki to cry... and she did.

We lied and said we had no money to take out so they threatened to take us to the US embassy. They said that the embassy would pay for us and we would have to pay five times the original amount when we returned to the states. Nicole told them to hold on while she called the hostel to find out if we could pay them later leaving us money to pay them. As she walked away with phone in hand... she dialed the US embassy only to find out they were closed. Remembering our cousin Gabe's blog and his run in with the police in India we decided to let them go ahead and call the police... figuring if they were going to take our money we wouldn't go down with out a fight.

Denise, Amanda, and Franki sat down on the side of the road trying to look especially pitiful, which wasn't hard considering we had been traveling all day. All the while Nicole continued to call any number possible to find out if they were legitament. A half hour later they approached us with a "proposition," if we would promise to always buy tickets for our bags they would let us go. The stale mate was over and we had come out victorious. We hurriedly collected our ticketless bags and ran in the opposite direction of the ticketcheckers towards our hostel. At the time it was the worst experience abroad... ever... but now its another story for our blog... aren't you proud Aunt Etelka!