Monday, July 26, 2010

Days 24-26: Oh the Adventures.

The day we left Krakow was quite uneventful. We woke up in the morning, checked out of the hostel, and made our way to the train station. Now that we knew where we were going it only took about 12 minutes to get there.

We caught our train from Krakow to Warsaw around 10:20 and rode the train to Warsaw for about 2 hours. That was a funny experience. We got in this little car with 2 women and a man. 1 woman was quite pleasant and kind looking. The other kept glaring at us, and TWICE had a very heated conversation (in Polish, of course) with various train officials that had walked by. We are pretty sure she was griping and complaining about us - we didn't really care. We weren't doing anything to her. And the train officials both told her to 'Chill out' - from what we gathered, at least.

We found our way to our next hostel, with the help of a feisty taxi driver who didn't rip us off TOO badly thanks to Spencer's bartering techniques. After the driver dropped us off, we wandered around the square with 2 Finnish backpakers who were trying to find the same hostel. We found it. It was adorable. We were told that it only serves as a hostel for 2 months of the year, and the rest of the year it serves as a home for kids who are underprivelaged. No wonder the color scheme was yellow, pink and blue, and the decor consisted of a giant, stuffed hippo in the corner of the room!

The hostel was right in the main area of Old Town Warsaw. We napped for about 2 hours after we got to the hostel, but spent the rest of the evening walking around the old town, and eating pierogies and ice cream (swinekie to be exact. I think that was how to spell it...)

The next day we got up and toured the royal palace. It was bombed twice during WWII and completley destroyed. Some curators were able to recover hundreds of original pieces, and the country really rallied together after the war to rebuild the palace (and the rest of the old town.) But the palace was rebuilt 100% by donation. COOL! And it is really gorgeous, to boot.

After a nice, last lunch at a place where we went to specifically for the globki (but they told us the fresh cabbage was out of season, so they weren't offering it, thanks for NOTHING) but ate more pierogies and borsh, we headed back to the hostel to get to the bus station to get to the airport.

Well - long, embarrassing story VERY short, we checked our ticket on the way to th eairport and realized that we looked at the wrong ticket/time and the plane we were SUPPOSED to be on was gone. Yay.

So we got to the airport, and Spencer noticed a flight with WizzAir that was leaving soon, that would take us to an airport about an hour away. We got tickets, and - though the flight was delayed - got to Stockholm by this plane, and then a bus. And Spencer's friend Jennifer picked us up and we are now staying with her and her family!! AND Lot airlines assured us we could get some of our money back. Oh good.

After a late night, but a good night's rest, we went to church with Jennifer in a ward where Spencer spent 1 year of his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Everyone was so happy and surprised to see him!!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating with the missionaries, and talking with Jennifer and her sweet daughters. We also watched 'The Holiday' whlie doing laundry. OH how I love washing machines.

Today, we are going off into Stockholm for more adventures!! I will post pictures later!

3 comments:

  1. That sounds so awesome!

    I am in love in Krakow and all the castles. I also visited the royal castle in 2008, and I was supposed to go see Auschwitz but that ended up being cancelled and I never got to go.

    You're lucky you get to travel and such!

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  2. Cool stories! When I was at Warsaw Old Town back in 1975, the palace (and the rest of the Old Town) still hadn't been completely rebuilt - brick by brick. So cool that you saw it. If I recall, only 10% of the Old Town was NOT destroyed in the war. Amazing.

    Can't wait to hear more of your tales and adventures! And to SEE you soon! Love you love you!

    Derd

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  3. Sounds awesome...

    but where do those poor children live during the summer?

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