I am cold!!
Krakow is definitely a European gem that most people don't seem to know about. I can't believe I'm here, and for the second time in three years. I also am surprised this is the first trip I've made out of Prague. There are a whole lot of cities I really want to see Europe, and this is one of the few ones I've already been to. But the kids in Prague really wanted to come, and I couldn't object. Round-trip tickets on the train were a little more than $50, and then it was about $16 a night at our hostel.
So we were taking an overnight train, and purposely stayed out late on Wednesday night so we would be able to sleep on Thursday. We made a stop at B52s, and then went to bar we heard about that was over the bridge, so we took the tram there, met up with some other NYU kids, and had some fun sitting around and taking photos and talking about the trip and all. We wanted to make one more stop of the night, and Alex ( from Sarah Lawrence; studying w/ NYU; was also here last semester) told us to make a right out of the bar and we'd find someplace else. We didn't. Eventually we decided to go home. So we walked to the Tesco tram stop, which is our usually stop when going from the Academic Center to Machova (the dorm). No one reading this hprobably has any idea of how long a walk that is. I was on the other side of the river, so we decided to get to the Charles Bridge, cross it, and then it's probably a 15 minute walk to the tram stop. I crossed the Charles Bridge at 2am, and it was amazing. It is a Prague experience not to forget. Beautiful. It was so beautiful I really didn't care about the cold.
Thursday was a really busy day. I had three classes and a bunch of errand to run. My most important errand, which I accomplished, was buying a backpack to use while traveling in Europe. Anyway, busy day, yada, yada, yada. (I only had a brief moment to check my e-mails but there was one from Mai confirming her trip here. She'll be here in less than two weeks. AND there were e-mails from Anuja (studying in London) and Allie (in Paris) saying they wanted to fly in that weekend for a vist too. So I think the four of us will be together in less than two weeks. That's exciting. I also think it's really cool that Mai with know Melissa from UHALL last year. Anyway, that was some really good news...)
At 9:20pm 18 of us left Prague. At 5:30 17 of us arrived in Krakow.
We had three cars of six people on our overnight train to Krakow (sound familiar, Kerry, Margaret??) Rachel, Melissa, Kailin, Lizzie, Ben and I shared a car. We compartment was actually quite popular. When we arrived the bunks were up, so there was room to sit, and we probably fit 13 people in there (sound impossible, Kerry, Margaret??) We played some Never Have I Ever, and sat around talking and snacking. People headed off to bed; the six of us made up our beds, and got in them (I was in a middle bunk) and then talked for a while. At 2am or so we crossed the border and the Polish Border Police came around checking passpost. Morley had packed quickly and had forgotten his, and was escorted of the train by 4 of the guards. Jeff gave him his phone, and at this point we only assume he's back at the dorm. It was a pretty intense time, and we've all really missed not having Morley with us, although seeing it's Morley we anticipate a good story when we get home tomorrow. So got in at 5:30 or so, and walked to our hostel. On the way we passed the Hotel Polera. I actually was just looking in the windows of all the places we passed, and I saw some people setting the table in the dining room of the Hotel and I was immediately flooded with a really intense memory of breakfast there. I looked up for a sign right away and saw "HOTEL POLERA." It was actually a really intense moment for me. We got to the hoste, and got about 2 hours of sleep. There are 11 of us (should have been 12...) staying at our hostel, others are at a different one. Rachel, Kailin, Lizzie and Melissa are in the room with me, and Rachel M., Sadie, Stacey, Ben, Jeff and Sanjiv are next door. I'm really happy about this group. All good people and I've had a really great time with them.
On Friday morning we went to the Castle, which I didn't see the last time I was here and really enjoyed. Krakow is covered in snow. We then walked to the Jewish Quarter and had lunch there at really Jewish restuarant. It was a really nice place, and I got Matzaball soup and pierogi ruskie, which were both delicious. We then walked around the Jewish Quarter a litte. On our way out to dinner that night we passed The Sphinx, and I was flooded with more memories, and pointed the resturant out to some people I was with. I had stuffed cabbage at dinner and we went to a lounge afterwards that was pretty cool. I walked home from there with Rachel M. and Stacey and on the was back to the hostel we passed the Jazz Club. I felt really excited, because I felt I was 3 for 3.
This morning we went to Auschwitz. I'm at an Internet Cafe with Kailin now and it's almost 11pm and this is costing me a few zloteys, so I think I'll save the rest of this post until the next time I get to a computer, probably sometime on Monday.
It's so cold in Poland.
I am freezing.
Hope everyone is well.
-Kelly
ps - Hopefully new photos will be up soon. Am doing my best.
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