Hallelujah Krakow!!! My saviour :) I finally got some cash before leaving St Petersburg, and as much as I liked that place, I didn't feel too bad about seeing Russia disappear beneath the clouds from the air, hehe. The flight to Poland was fairly uneventful, except for the frisking I got by the Russian security as I left, and the Polish security as I arrived! I guess you can't be too lax about security (No I'm not a terrorist I swear! What knife? Where? They're scissors mate, you know what they are?).
Anyway, I took a taxi to my hotel in Krakow, a nice comfy room, and decided to spoil myself with a big feed at their downstairs restaurant - beef steak in green peppercorn sauce, mashed spuds washed down with a Heineken, and a huge apple pie and icecream decked out gourmet style with swirly custard, peaches and pineapple which topped off the pre-dessert vodka!! Whoohoo I feel human again :)
I went to walk off some of my excess fat (yeh right) and got a quick look at the old town square before getting bludged for 5zl by some chick on the scab. Obliging just to keep her quiet, I went home for a nice hot shower and defrost :) It was -8C when I arrived and it dropped a notch by this time.
This morning I pigged out on the complimentary breakfast (these guys know how to put on a good spread) then went sightseeing around the old town. But first I bought my train ticket to Prague where I'll be going tomorrow. That'll be a 7 hour non-stop ride so I should have time in the afternoon to get my bearings. The station is close enough to walk to as well.
I found my way to Wawel Castle, home to one of the old Polish kings, and went and paid for a look at the armoury (each of the main sections had a separate ticket so I didn't bother with the rest). Its full of awesome medieval swords, guns, cannons, suits of armour etc all from the 11th to 18th century from Germany, Poland, Italy and Hungary, and I was fascinated by the intricacy of the design work on all these things. No photos were allowed but I got a touristy brochure (in Russian) about them. After that, I found a groovy cafe full of nice girls and warmed up with a coffee :) The main square here is pretty cool and is supposed to be the biggest in Europe (that depends on how you define it I reckon), but its bordered by all the old medieval buildings and churches which attract all the tourists.
I wish I had more time here because I'm not going to get to Auschwitz or the famous salt mine unfortunately. But there's good facilities everywhere, that is bars, cafes, money exchangers (I finally cashed in my Aussie dollars but they didn't take my Mongolian money :P), and a lot of people speak English. So no more cryptic Cyrillic alphabet to decipher, only cryptic Polish! But its much easier here than anywhere I've been so far for which I'm thankful :).
I'll be walking round some more this arvo and will try and visit Kazimierz, the old jewish sector of town, which isn't too far. So from tomorrow I'll be in yet another country dealing with yet another currency and yet another language!
[Addendum] I wasn't too impressed with Kazimierz, just more old buildings and a couple of churches, and the museum was closed for some reason. So in the evening, I checked out Casa de Pasta 'cos I felt like some old fashioned fettucini :) They served a great feed of salmon fettucini with a doughy pitta bread baked over the top of the pot. Intriguing nevertheless yummy :). Oddly enough, the same pasta place had a downstairs bar decked out in middle eastern / turkish decor, so I went and had a beer. I thought I was in the wrong country as bare-bellied beauties in belly dancing outfits were serving me with smiles, and they even had 'hookah' water pipes to try, so of course I had to oblige hehe. I couldn't believe I was in Poland being served by belly dancers while toking on a mulit-fruit hookah surrounded by turkish cushions to the sound of darabukah drums!! I'll post the picture when I can - its a winner! haha.
Anyway, I made it to Prague, but that's another story :)
Do widzenia!!
