A Lot of Catching Up to Do

Hello folks,
Thanks for hanging in there during my little leave of absence from blogging. A lot has happened since that last post - namely, three cities, two weird train rides, one celebrity sighting, at least three cups of mulled wine and heaps more goulash.

Lets rewind to Krakow.

Even though it SNOWED my first two days there, Krakow has been the highlight of my trip so far. It's really beautiful - the old town square is mostly a pedestrian area, and is lively day and night with locals (not just tourists). In addition to that, the food has been the best of the trip (pierogies, sourkraut, beets - ok maybe it's not everyone's style, but I looooved it), and it's CHEAP! Super cheap. One new thing I tried, as suggested by our tour guide who was a sweet 21 year old from Krakow, was hot beer. It sounds terrible, I know, but was actually quite nice (especially while watching the snow fall outside). It's, well, hot beer, with spices and orange slices. It ends up tasting kind of citrusy. I imagine it's a similar method as making mulled wine. Although, I might advise against trying to make hot beer at home, unless you can find a recipe. I had a great time at the hostel I stayed at, met loads of people from all over, and even made a travel buddy to accompany me to Prague. Like I said, highlight of the trip so far.

An hour and a half away from Krakow is Auschwitz, one of the Nazi concentration camps. I had the opportunity to tour that on my first day in Poland. I was expecting to have this horrified feeling the whole time I was there, but it all just felt surreal. Auschwitz itself has essentially been turned into a museum. In each open building, you see displays of artifacts from the camp - like clothing the prisoners wore, massive piles of shoes and eyeglasses and other things the Nazis stole from the prisoners when they arrived, a huge pile of human hair ... yeah. Next to Auschwitz is a second camp, Birkenau, which was a death camp rather than a work camp, and not at all museum-ized like Auschwitz. This place was 1,000 times more disturbing. Picture an open field, surrounded with barbed wire, with row after row of long barn-like buildings where people were stuffed three or more to a bed, with little or no heat. All I can say is it was a pretty weird experience. It was freezing cold and snowing when I was there, too, which added another depressing layer to the whole experience.

Anyway. I left Krakow on another night train (this time with a travel buddy, as I mentioned ((hey Casey!))). The awesome news was that we got a sleeper compartment to ourselves! The weird news was that, when I woke up in the morning, our compartment was unlocked. WEIRD. I have no idea how it happened - locking from the inside involves moving a metal bar into place and twisting a lock thing into it. So, nothing was stolen or anything (my passport and credit cards were once again in my bra and pants just to be safe), and I was awake almost all night anyway (seriously, the train bounced and jerked around so much, every 10 minutes I thought we were derailing), so I know nothing happened. But that might be the last night train I take.

So then we were in Prague!

I have to say, Prague was not my favorite city. It might be the most beautiful city I've ever seen, but what they say about the tourists ("they're everywhere") is true - they are everywhere. The streets are so incredibly crowded with tour groups, it's hard to get around. For me, that detracted from the city's beauty (and I'm telling you, this city is gorgeous - massive baroque style buildings, cobblestone pedestrian streets, castles, the river - it's amazing to look at). Aside from the tourists, I didn't think the food was that great. Granted, I was totally spoiled in Budapest and Krakow, where the food comes by the heap and costs practically nothing - and tastes like an old Polish/Hungarian grandmother roasted it over an open fire all day. The food in Prague - for me, was like a slightly lesser version. The typical meal was thin slices of meat (pork or beef), "dumplings" (these were like really dense and moist pieces of bread - they looked sliced, rather than like lumpy dumplings that I'm used to), and gravy (unfortunately, not super flavorful). Maybe I ate at the wrong places three nights in a row, but the people I'm with weren't too wild about it either.

Is it weird how much importance I put on food?

However, there were two AWESOME things about my time in Prague:
1. Hot mulled wine. Oh my. Somehow I've never had this before (where have you been all my life?!). Luckily I tried it on my first full day in Prague, so I had three more days to drink the stuff. Stir in a little sugar and add a slice of lemon - yeah, I'll be experimenting with this stuff all winter. For sure.
2. I saw Anthony Bourdain!!!!! Walking down the street! They must have been filming for No Reservations, because two cameramen were following him. Nobody else seemed to take notice (not that he's a huge star, but people usually seem to be interested in movie cameras, no?). We followed him for awhile, I took a picture, and then decided to stop stalking. I don't consider myself a big celebrity person, but Anthony Bourdain is probably one of the five people I would be star struck for. I just love that guy. So, as he is a travel writer and a chef, I figure that bumping into him in Prague (do you like how I pretend I actually talked to him or something?) is simply an omen that I must do the same with my life. Except for all the drugs. I think he did a lot of drugs in his earlier years.

So that was Prague! Now you're pretty caught up on my life, except for one weird train ride and the little town of Cesky Krumlov, where I currently reside. But you'll have to wait until next time. :)