Start Krakow

... with sadness and a sense of shame. Every single one of them said something along the lines of, "There will always be idiots out there" and the like. I then realized that Poland cannot be overgeneralized and be automatically called antisemetic, because many, many people aren't. But those who are for some reason are the most outspoken and make their presence known the most. This then made me think about the world in general...doesn't the negative aspects of it stick out to people the ...

<br><br>New roommate, "Barbara" from California is now headed off to Donetsk and a new school! I hope it is what she is looking for &#8211; who knows with some of the Ukraine cities. She had a 7:45 train and mine left at 8:45 for Krakow (an overnight train through Lviv and western Ukraine. From the moment I stepped off the train in Krakow I knew I loved the place &#8211; nice feeling, vibrant, friendly, easy to navigate. I stashed the ...

... for another 3 hours south to Krakow. It is also a beautiful city. It was the capital of Poland before Warsaw and largely escaped damage from the Germans, Allies or Russians so most of the mediaeval buildings survived. From what little I've seen so far it is far more compact than Warsaw and it is definitely more tourist friendly with many of the signs in English. We plan to discover more here tomorrow before ...

... it was so embarrassing. At a truck stop Jan woke me to ask if I wanted a smoke but I was too warm and snug to be getting out into the cold so I stayed on the bus while he got off. I was dozing lightly when the bus got underway again but awoke with a start when I quickly realized that Jan wasn't beside me. Shouting at the driver to 'stop the bus' while also running down the aisle, I was sure we had left the guy behind. With the driver not sure what was happening and me trying to explain ...

... Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter, where we saw something unusual - a couple of Hasidic Jews. I always managed to see rare **** like that! Will was astounded after all he had never seen any in all his months living in Poland. It made us think a little about what the place was like pre WWII. After a short while our bellies needed filling, so we found a busy hole in the wall for some zapiekanka at Kazimierz's Nowy ...

... on Sunday. Attended mass conducted in Polish at St. Mary's Basilika. Not that I know when to stand/sit/kneel in American masses but it was even more challenging in Polish. Beautiful interior with a 28 meter high wooden alterpiece carved by Veit Stoss. Something interesting..."On every hour, a trumpet signal is played from the top of St. Mary's two towers. The tune breaks off in mid-stream, to commemorate the famous ...

... corrupted my camera's memory card, losing about 500 or so original pictures including all my photos of Warsaw. Either way, although very nice, I had stayed in nicer hostels in Tokyo, Lisbon, Brussels &amp; Warsaw. I met a couple Canadians at the hostel, despite all the school kids downstairs. One guy from Ottawa was heavily involved with the federal Liberal Party and had just recently attended the leadership convention in Montreal that elected Stephane Dion as the new ...

Sorry for the terrible title - Travelpod limits the number of characters you can have in the title. C'est la vie! Some guy at the hostel was proposing to one of the hostel workers this morning as a joke (half joke). What a fool! Why would you do that? At least propose to Magda, the hot one, like some other guy did. He was a bit of a loser, too. I won't name names, but I can describe him - tall, skinny, dark dude, with an Afro, and of unknown ethnic origins. Kept babbling ...

... money for a beer. After writing a few postcards I moved onto another vegetarian restaurant that I read about on the free map that they give you. It was near the cathedral. I had falafels and fruit yoghurt drink. Not very Polish but healthy. Luckily they had an English menu. I knew at this point I wasn't going to do any more sightseeing as I was so tired so I headed back to the hostel I could hardly sit at the computer as my back was aching so much. We had been ...

... hostel and gave one a go. It's a half french stick topped with a mushroom puree, cheese and tomato sauce (other toppings such as ham are optional) and its delicious. One of the best fast foods I've ever had - I can't believe its not taken off everywhere else. Where is McZapi??? So thats it. I've fallen in love with this country. In just a few days it has completely won me over. Next day I headed out to the Salt mines which have been in operation for ...