It's been so long I feel rusty, I've just tried to write the first sentence to this blog a couple of times and haven't managed to hit the right note yet. But it's been so long that I'm just going to go with it and see what happens because otherwise I may never get around to updating this poor, neglected blog. You'd think with exams I'd be spending more time on here but for some reason it hasn't worked out that way this time. As you know from the last post I spent a few weeks in Eastern Europe at the end of March and beginning of April.
I started my trip with my flatmate Daniel who decided to accompany me on a weekend trip to Warsaw to visit some relatives of his. We booked tickets on "Wizz Air," an Hungarian budget airline (I learned later in my trip that Hungary has no domestic flights so that is even stranger) that sounded so fake I was pretty sure I was going to show up to the airport and be laughed back to London. Instead the only part that was difficult was finding the correct EasyBus stop to get to the airport. I had printed out the wrong form and so was just following Daniel's lead. We got to where he thought the stop was but realized everyone else was waiting there with their suitcases en route to a different airport. Instead we moved down the block 25 feet and stood at the next stop. It was something like 2 or 3 minutes until our bus was due when Daniel realized that the paper he was holding indicated we were waiting at the wrong stop and we were a couple of blocks from where the paper said we needed to be. I kept insisting that the sign at the stop we were standing at listed the bus we were waiting for which is when Daniel actually said "can't you read ENGLISH!?" Hahahaha I can, but since it's not his first (or second) language he didn't realize that what he was holding was his return bus information. Luckily this meant we were at the right stop and we caught the bus in time to get to the airport and catch our flight on the bubblegum pink airplane that Wizz flies. Surprisingly the flight was actually more comfortable and enjoyable than any EasyJet flight I've lived through. Because I was not the person who chose the flight it wasn't at 6am, instead we flew out in the late afternoon and got in around 11 to Warsaw. Daniel's cousin was kind enough to pick us both us from the airport and go out of his way to take me to my hostel in the middle of the night. The hostel itself was tucked away in a hard to find portion of what looked like a strip mall. So hard to find that we pulled into the parking lot and then left again before I spotted it from the road as we drove away.
I used the code I had been given to get through the front door and made my way up stairs to a weird common room area seemingly full of late 20s-30s men. I couldn't find my room so eventually the one woman who was there noticed my plight and took my back down two flights of stairs (with my bags) to checks me in. Then back up two flights of stairs to my room. There were two guys in it already, both in bed, though one was on his computer for hours more. I read until late and then slept in the next morning while the other people in the room noisily packed up their things and checked out.
I eventually got out of bed and picked up a map from the reception. It was a little cold but the sun was shining so I decided to walk down to the train station. Within a few blocks of my hostel I came upon my first piece of Warsaw history
The walk down to the train station was otherwise uneventful, except for this super cool building
I stopped at the train station for a few minutes to check upcoming schedules and then kept going on my walk. I passed by the communist Palace of Culture and Science that is (I believe still?) the tallest building in Poland.
Then it was down to the intersection with the only palm tree in Warsaw and probably Poland.
It's plastic, which kind of made me love it more.
I turned and walked down the "5th Avenue" of Warsaw, which has excellent taste in music
and actual music(!)
I also loved that these pastry shops were all over
because my grandfather's last name was "cukier" (pronounce su-keer) which later morphed into Shugaar when he reached the U.S. It made me feel pretty welcome all over the country since these were about 5 to a block.
Part of the way down this street I sat to check my guidebook for some information and when I stood up my loyal purse, bought at Primark for a couple of pounds in October, which had been by my side through all of my trips this year, gave up life with a quiet sigh, as the shoulder strap parted on one side from the body of the bag. I was devastated. I was also inconvenienced. I kept going anyway though. Walking down past the government buildings
to the reconstructed Old Town of Warsaw, starting with the Castle Square
According to Wikipedia they've done a good job with the reconstruction, which was necessary after the Germans systematically destroyed the place and have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site as "an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction of a span of history covering the 13th to the 20th century."
I walked past the Castle Square, through some smaller streets that sported the first (and only) anti-semetic graffiti I've ever seen
and into the Old Town Square proper
it was as adorable and overpriced as you would expect. Unlike most Old Town Squares this one had WiFi! So I sat in the sun and took the chance to message my mom that I had reached Poland safely. Then it was up and walking again, this time through the Barbican to the New Town
(Barbican seen from inside the Old Town and then from outside, looking at it from the New Town). I finally stopped to grab lunch and then did a bit of wandering through the New Town, the most notable feature of which was the neo-Roman (I'm just making that part up) wall decorations on the outside of houses
It was such a pretty day in the sun that I sat by the river and admired the view and read a book for a little while.
Then it was back to the Castle Square, but this time by following around the outside of the old city wall from the Barbican, past this super cool zodiac clock
and horde of Israeli school-children coming out of a museum (sorry no pics of that) and then down past this gigantic theatre building
to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, guarded by these two unfortunates who I actually thought for a good minute were not real live breathing people.
With my curiosity satisfied we took the tram to the Warsaw Rising Museum I had heard so much about, and was assured by my guidebook would still be open. We got there just as it closed unfortunately and were told to come back another day. Instead we took the tram back towards the train station so I could buy onward tickets and stop by the super fancy new mall to quickly buy a new traveling purse from H&M. I said my goodbyes to the original and sadly let it go. Then it was back out into the city, following essentially the same route I had taken that morning from the train station. Only this time the Palace of Culture was lit up in colorful lights for the nighttime
And when we got to the fancy main shopping street ("5th Avenue" - that is definitely not that real name but definitely is the real nickname) there was a vehement street protest underway that certainly was not there when I had walked though before.
We didn't know what the protest was about but we stopped to take pictures of them anyway. A stranger then stopped behind us to lecture that we weren't allowed to take pictures which didn't make any sense because EVERYONE that wasn't actively protesting (and some that were) were all taking pictures. Daniel said later it was possible that the man was trying to say that we shouldn't take pictures because it was dangerous but that didn't seem to really be true either. But then the protestors lit flares and started throwing the ones that let off an almighty BANG! when they light and one landed a few meters away from us so I took refuge in a nearby restaurant for the duration.
When things had called down and the smoke had started to disperse I walked back out and took more pictures.
It seemed like a pretty good turnout for the protest
And they had this really sweet boombox van that I looooved.
We found out later that the protest was apparently about some building that was being redeveloped and people were losing their housing and unable to find affordable alternatives.
We kept on our way and sampled various Polish vodkas at three different bars in the area, at the second one we got to continue watching the Easter day program rehearsal and then gawk as they walked past the window dressed in costume.
At the final set of bars I freaked out at both the anatomical decorations
And the Roa art on a wall outside
The night ended with a late night snack and a taxi ride back to the hostel where I had the room entirely to myself (which, if there aren't people worth meeting in a hostel is the next greatest thing that can happen).
The next day I woke up early to run down to the train station to catch my train to Pulawy (pronounced something like Puwavy) which was as close as I could get to my grandfather's home town of Konskowola
I had bought myself a student ticket the day before on Daniel's advice. The ticket didn't say anything other than that it was for students but I had read on a blog before that in Poland student tickets are reserved for Polish students (and possibly those with the ISIC card but even then I'm not sure). I decided to just go with it and that worked right up until the ticket inspector asked for my ticket. And then demanded my "documents" and then kept demanding my student "documents" when I handed him my student ID. At this point the guy sitting next to me, who had been helping me with translation issues, took over the argument on my behalf, along with supporting commentary from the old woman sitting across from me. They were awesome and eventually the ticket inspector backed down and let me go without any penalty. The guy sitting next to me also made sure I got off at the right stop. He was SO NICE.
And so was the cab driver! I arrived in Pulawy and asked a cab driver to take me to Konskowola which involved me just saying the town name a couple of times. He didn't speak English and I didn't speak Polish so that was about all we could do. He set the meter and drove me 6 kilometers or so to the center of Konskowola and dropped me off at the main Church. Before he left he made sure to give me his card and we set a time when he would come back and pick me up from the same spot in 3 hours. It was so nice of him to take care of me because there was no way I was going to find a cab in this little one stoplight town.
The first thing I did was check out this convenient map in the square right by the church which listed the Konskowola sights
then I let myself into the Church courtyard and admired the church, which looked like it had been recently renovated
The day was gorgeous and I had no where particular to go so I decided to just pick a direction and start walking. Being in Konskowola made me nostalgic and so I just walked and thought about my grandfather growing up there. What follows next is a visual/photographic tour of the town for the benefit of any of my relatives who want to see Konskowola. There was a definite mix of new growth and old dilapidated houses
Then I crossed over this stream, heading away from the Church and the main road down the sidewalk to the right of the stream is a big football pitch where there was a game that day.
This is the view looking back towards the part of town I was dropped off in from the bridge over the stream.
I walked until I came to this crossing where the road branched. I went to the left because that is where the sidewalk went
The sidewalk kept going, though a nicer suburban type area where people had nicely paved driveways and I took pictures of the bus stop sign just because I was so excited that it said "Konskowola" a place I had been hearing about my whole life but never actually pictured myself visiting.
and I laughed when I saw this sign
because obviously it means WARNING DOGS! but what my brain sees is WARNING, PIES! And like man, you do NOT have to warn me before I encounter pies. Those pies won't even know what hit them. One time I came home and Noam had filled our fridge with pies and there was absolutely no warning necessary. The surprise actually made them taste better. Anyways....back to Konskowola. I walked for maybe half a mile but possibly less before I discovered where the the sidewalk ends, which made me think about that book for the first time in years.
The sidewalk ends, by the way, at the edge of the town. I walked right past the sign and then turned around so I could take these pictures, behind the first you can see the street I had just walked down
and then ME!
Coming back I did my best to take pictures of the town, in the middle of the town is this big open space/empty fields that the town surrounds on three sides. Across the big space in this picture are the houses that line the main road.
This is on my way back into Konskowola from the edge of town. I just liked the old well juxtaposed with the brand new house and driveway
I walked back towards the center of town and stopped for a good amount of time to watch the football game as it got under way. Then it was back to the main square I had been dropped off in. The church I started at is in the background of this picture, the main road behind it.
In the square is a monument to the Konskowolans murdered (apparently that is the exact word used) by the Nazis in WWII
It's a pretty good example, I think, of Communist sculpture. In other words, it's really not that attractive. But I did find it moving, so I guess it did its job.
I wanted a snack so I checked out the nearby deli/small grocery shop and tried to buy a kiwi, but I only had a really big (I think 50 zloty) note for something that was going to cost maybe 2? Maybe even less. But I didn't have anything else to pay with and she didn't understand me when I tried to take it back and just not buy anything at all. Instead she just sighed really really loudly and counted out my change. I walked back up to the Church where I had been dropped off and then past it across the main road. This is what it looked like from that vantage point.
Then it was up the main road back in the direction of Pulawy to check out another church, this one looking distinctly as though it had seen better days.
This church was way out by the edge of town so I turned around and walked back up the other side of the street to the public library. I didn't see any books, at least down on the ground floor, I did see this exhibition of old time photos from the area (that made me think "MAN, mom would looooove to see these")
I walked back up the main road to the center of town again and this time turned right up a side street to see if I could find the edge of the town. And there it was, right after this shrine,
In this picture I've reached the edge of town, turned around and am looking back at the main road (to Pulawy) the orange building in the background is on the main road, so the village ends about one block away from the main road at this point. There was only one direction I had not explored yet, so I walked up the main road in the direction of Lublin, then turned off (to the right) to check out the town's lone strip mall and to visit the large cemetery.
Beyond which there was a whole lot of nothing.
I had seen just about everything in the town so I walked from the cemetery back to the main road, through what appeared to be a very small area of recent development and back to the main church, across from which is the largest building in Konskowola (I'm thinking it might be a hospital?)
and noticed for the first time the only stoplight in town.
I had about 20 minutes or so before the taxi was due back so I sat in the sun in front of the main church and read my book until he came back. This taxi driver was just SO GREAT. He showed up on time, and even though I don't speak either Polish or German (his two languages) he still tried to ask me if I had accomplished what I wanted to while I was in Konskowola. He was so sweet. He dropped me off at the train station where I bought my ticket back and was informed that the next train was in 3 hours. I knew there was a 7 pm and a 5 pm train so I had been counting on a 3pm train but I was not in luck. Instead I just staked out a bench up on the platform and alternated between napping in the sun and reading my book.
By the time I got back to Warsaw proper I was too exhausted to go back to my hostel and then come back into the center of the city so I decided to just tough the night out in the (too) light jacket I was already wearing. I met Daniel and his friend Klaudyna and her roommate to grab drinks. We started a a really fun bar, which I fell in love with as soon as we walked in and found the Surfing Guide in Polish on the bar. From there we switched locations over to a very very very tiny bar so that I could try a particular kind of flavored vodka I had so far missed out on. The bar was built so that the shots would sit in it and be underlit. Everyone took pictures
cause the shots looked really cool
After we had had our fill we walked through a rather deserted and misty Warsaw, an area with these old looking lamps
and then hopped a bus back to the main area we had met in. We stopped to meet up with a couple of people for a minute and while we were standing on the corner we ended up in one of the weirdest confrontations I have ever witnessed. From what I remember a guy near us asked where we were from or if English was our first language and then said he was from Milton Keyes and Daniel jokingly asked if that was in Florida. At this point the dude got his panties in a twist and super insulted and then his gigantic friend stepped in and GRABBED DANIEL'S EAR and tried to start a fight. Which the original guy had to step in and tell him to back off. But this giant was such a meathead (and I guess drunk enough) that he kept trying to re-start the fight and his friend had to repeatedly step in front of him and try to redirect his attention. It was super weird and random. Also I've never seen someone so slow on the uptake! This guy kept actually forgetting 1) that he was trying to fight Daniel 2) that he had been told it was unnecessary and 3) then remembering that he wanted to fight no matter what.
We cooled our tempers with one last drink at a bar so I had tasted ALL the flavors of Polish vodka and then we stopped at a corner store for more vodka and retired to Klaudyna's apartment for more drinking. She made us delicious hardboiled eggs and cheese and bread and we ate and finished off the bottle we had bought. Daniel underestimated by a bit the quantity of vodka he was prepared to consume and so we ended up crashing there for the night, luckily Klaudyna's third roommate was out of town so I had a free bed to use.
That morning we woke up super early and stumbled back, past a passed out man on the sidewalk (who was being woken up by the police right as we went past). I got back to the hostel and had a few hours to sleep before I was supposed to check out. I had been moved the night before into a new room as they consolidated the guests. This time the room I was in was occupied by regular travelers but they were checking out as well. I eventually dragged myself out of bed, packed up, and journeyed back to the train station. There, I exchanged my student ticket for a youth ticket to Krakow so I would avoid the problems with the ticket inspector.
I got myself a locker and rested Bessie the bag in there while I went off to find some lunch. Then I was unable to resist the siren call of TK Maxx anymore so I went shopping, at least until the electricity went out and they kicked everyone out. Daniel and I had planned to meet up to go to the Warsaw Rising Museum but he slept in so I just went and visited the new mall again (it's under that wavy glass).
Eventually Daniel got back into Warsaw proper but it was too late for the museum so instead we went to explore the Palace of Culture and Science. We started out by walking ALL THE WAY AROUND it because the entrance was not where we thought it was. That meant we got to admire this sculpture outside the museum of technology
Yup, a mermaid made out of old tech.
Then it was all of these old communist sculptures, in the first, the book lists Marx, Engels and Lenin but there is room for a fourth name that was never added, Daniel told me who but I've since forgotten (Stalin?)
and if you look real closely this sculpture's fingernails were painted pink
There was also a great view of this building that is part of the new Warsaw downtown area.
Then it was inside the actual building and we bought tickets to the viewing deck. We went further inside to the elevator that was to take us up. And we waited. And we waited. and we waited. There were signs specifically saying not to press the button for the elevator but it was so tempting!! Eventually though, the car arrived and we piled inside, there was a woman in there whose sole job was to push the button for the viewing deck. Once we got up to the deck we had gorgeous views of Warsaw and a howling gale force wind to go with them. You could see the new football stadium (ready to go for Euro 2012)
the river
and you could kind of see us, although the backlighting was pretty challenging
I was worried about missing my train so we went back down and into the
station, only to find that no train was listed for the time I had
written down. I checked the ticket machine again and there was
definitely a ticket available for the time I had written down, just none listed under arrivals. Back to the help desk! Where they were really not helpful. Apparently despite the ticket machine's willingness to tell me there was a train at that time, none was actually scheduled, oh and my new ticket was going to cost triple what I had spent before. Why exactly did the ticket machine lie? The lady couldn't really explain, she tried but in both English and Polish all she really said was "well the machine will just give you whatever you ask it for!" and I'm like but I'm asking it to sell me a real ticket to a real existing train! I didn't ask it to LIE to me! Regardless, new ticket purchased I said goodbye to Daniel and eventually made it onto the correct train, which was quite posh and found she had given me a window seat with no window. I moved a row back to an actual window seat and settled in.
A few hours later I was in Krakow, where I made my way to my hostel which was located in the back of a pretty dark alley and from there to bed. I was tired from the traveling and the late night before so I just went to sleep fairly early to read, and then read quite late. I was in an empty room again, which was great, but at 2:00 am or so this guy that worked there opened the door and came in and tried to make conversation which was actually pretty creepy in retrospect. After a few terse exchanges he figured out he should probably leave and left me in peace for the rest of the night.
Well, I think that was a long enough blog update to feel like I can leave off and resume with my first day in Krakow next post.
Love and miss you,
I started my trip with my flatmate Daniel who decided to accompany me on a weekend trip to Warsaw to visit some relatives of his. We booked tickets on "Wizz Air," an Hungarian budget airline (I learned later in my trip that Hungary has no domestic flights so that is even stranger) that sounded so fake I was pretty sure I was going to show up to the airport and be laughed back to London. Instead the only part that was difficult was finding the correct EasyBus stop to get to the airport. I had printed out the wrong form and so was just following Daniel's lead. We got to where he thought the stop was but realized everyone else was waiting there with their suitcases en route to a different airport. Instead we moved down the block 25 feet and stood at the next stop. It was something like 2 or 3 minutes until our bus was due when Daniel realized that the paper he was holding indicated we were waiting at the wrong stop and we were a couple of blocks from where the paper said we needed to be. I kept insisting that the sign at the stop we were standing at listed the bus we were waiting for which is when Daniel actually said "can't you read ENGLISH!?" Hahahaha I can, but since it's not his first (or second) language he didn't realize that what he was holding was his return bus information. Luckily this meant we were at the right stop and we caught the bus in time to get to the airport and catch our flight on the bubblegum pink airplane that Wizz flies. Surprisingly the flight was actually more comfortable and enjoyable than any EasyJet flight I've lived through. Because I was not the person who chose the flight it wasn't at 6am, instead we flew out in the late afternoon and got in around 11 to Warsaw. Daniel's cousin was kind enough to pick us both us from the airport and go out of his way to take me to my hostel in the middle of the night. The hostel itself was tucked away in a hard to find portion of what looked like a strip mall. So hard to find that we pulled into the parking lot and then left again before I spotted it from the road as we drove away.
I used the code I had been given to get through the front door and made my way up stairs to a weird common room area seemingly full of late 20s-30s men. I couldn't find my room so eventually the one woman who was there noticed my plight and took my back down two flights of stairs (with my bags) to checks me in. Then back up two flights of stairs to my room. There were two guys in it already, both in bed, though one was on his computer for hours more. I read until late and then slept in the next morning while the other people in the room noisily packed up their things and checked out.
I eventually got out of bed and picked up a map from the reception. It was a little cold but the sun was shining so I decided to walk down to the train station. Within a few blocks of my hostel I came upon my first piece of Warsaw history
I turned and walked down the "5th Avenue" of Warsaw, which has excellent taste in music
because my grandfather's last name was "cukier" (pronounce su-keer) which later morphed into Shugaar when he reached the U.S. It made me feel pretty welcome all over the country since these were about 5 to a block.
Part of the way down this street I sat to check my guidebook for some information and when I stood up my loyal purse, bought at Primark for a couple of pounds in October, which had been by my side through all of my trips this year, gave up life with a quiet sigh, as the shoulder strap parted on one side from the body of the bag. I was devastated. I was also inconvenienced. I kept going anyway though. Walking down past the government buildings
to the reconstructed Old Town of Warsaw, starting with the Castle Square
According to Wikipedia they've done a good job with the reconstruction, which was necessary after the Germans systematically destroyed the place and have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site as "an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction of a span of history covering the 13th to the 20th century."
I walked past the Castle Square, through some smaller streets that sported the first (and only) anti-semetic graffiti I've ever seen
and into the Old Town Square proper
(Barbican seen from inside the Old Town and then from outside, looking at it from the New Town). I finally stopped to grab lunch and then did a bit of wandering through the New Town, the most notable feature of which was the neo-Roman (I'm just making that part up) wall decorations on the outside of houses
to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, guarded by these two unfortunates who I actually thought for a good minute were not real live breathing people.
Imagine my surprise when they started marching. I was due to meet Daniel near the fountain you can see behind the soldiers in the above picture so I parked myself on a bench and people (and puppy) watched for ages until he came.
As soon as he arrived I dragged him to look at the Roman re-enactment I had been watching for a while from a distance. Some sort of Easter pageant was in the middle of dress rehearsal in the plaza.
We kept on our way and sampled various Polish vodkas at three different bars in the area, at the second one we got to continue watching the Easter day program rehearsal and then gawk as they walked past the window dressed in costume.
At the final set of bars I freaked out at both the anatomical decorations
The next day I woke up early to run down to the train station to catch my train to Pulawy (pronounced something like Puwavy) which was as close as I could get to my grandfather's home town of Konskowola
And so was the cab driver! I arrived in Pulawy and asked a cab driver to take me to Konskowola which involved me just saying the town name a couple of times. He didn't speak English and I didn't speak Polish so that was about all we could do. He set the meter and drove me 6 kilometers or so to the center of Konskowola and dropped me off at the main Church. Before he left he made sure to give me his card and we set a time when he would come back and pick me up from the same spot in 3 hours. It was so nice of him to take care of me because there was no way I was going to find a cab in this little one stoplight town.
The first thing I did was check out this convenient map in the square right by the church which listed the Konskowola sights
then I let myself into the Church courtyard and admired the church, which looked like it had been recently renovated
I walked until I came to this crossing where the road branched. I went to the left because that is where the sidewalk went
The sidewalk ends, by the way, at the edge of the town. I walked right past the sign and then turned around so I could take these pictures, behind the first you can see the street I had just walked down
I walked back up the main road to the center of town again and this time turned right up a side street to see if I could find the edge of the town. And there it was, right after this shrine,
In this picture I've reached the edge of town, turned around and am looking back at the main road (to Pulawy) the orange building in the background is on the main road, so the village ends about one block away from the main road at this point. There was only one direction I had not explored yet, so I walked up the main road in the direction of Lublin, then turned off (to the right) to check out the town's lone strip mall and to visit the large cemetery.
By the time I got back to Warsaw proper I was too exhausted to go back to my hostel and then come back into the center of the city so I decided to just tough the night out in the (too) light jacket I was already wearing. I met Daniel and his friend Klaudyna and her roommate to grab drinks. We started a a really fun bar, which I fell in love with as soon as we walked in and found the Surfing Guide in Polish on the bar. From there we switched locations over to a very very very tiny bar so that I could try a particular kind of flavored vodka I had so far missed out on. The bar was built so that the shots would sit in it and be underlit. Everyone took pictures
We cooled our tempers with one last drink at a bar so I had tasted ALL the flavors of Polish vodka and then we stopped at a corner store for more vodka and retired to Klaudyna's apartment for more drinking. She made us delicious hardboiled eggs and cheese and bread and we ate and finished off the bottle we had bought. Daniel underestimated by a bit the quantity of vodka he was prepared to consume and so we ended up crashing there for the night, luckily Klaudyna's third roommate was out of town so I had a free bed to use.
That morning we woke up super early and stumbled back, past a passed out man on the sidewalk (who was being woken up by the police right as we went past). I got back to the hostel and had a few hours to sleep before I was supposed to check out. I had been moved the night before into a new room as they consolidated the guests. This time the room I was in was occupied by regular travelers but they were checking out as well. I eventually dragged myself out of bed, packed up, and journeyed back to the train station. There, I exchanged my student ticket for a youth ticket to Krakow so I would avoid the problems with the ticket inspector.
I got myself a locker and rested Bessie the bag in there while I went off to find some lunch. Then I was unable to resist the siren call of TK Maxx anymore so I went shopping, at least until the electricity went out and they kicked everyone out. Daniel and I had planned to meet up to go to the Warsaw Rising Museum but he slept in so I just went and visited the new mall again (it's under that wavy glass).
Then it was all of these old communist sculptures, in the first, the book lists Marx, Engels and Lenin but there is room for a fourth name that was never added, Daniel told me who but I've since forgotten (Stalin?)
A few hours later I was in Krakow, where I made my way to my hostel which was located in the back of a pretty dark alley and from there to bed. I was tired from the traveling and the late night before so I just went to sleep fairly early to read, and then read quite late. I was in an empty room again, which was great, but at 2:00 am or so this guy that worked there opened the door and came in and tried to make conversation which was actually pretty creepy in retrospect. After a few terse exchanges he figured out he should probably leave and left me in peace for the rest of the night.
Well, I think that was a long enough blog update to feel like I can leave off and resume with my first day in Krakow next post.
Love and miss you,
