krakow, poland and palkovice, czech republic

Let´s see.. where did I leave off?

We met some more people at our hostel in Krakow. There was this family (from north van!) of a mom, two daughters and a son who have been traveling all around asia for the last year and a bit. They´ve been to Mongolia, Afghanistan, India.. all sorts of crazy places.. it was so cool talking to them, and very inspiring! A few others that we met-Sonya, Nick, Brendan and Noel, came to Krakow with us on the same train. We had already pre-booked our hostel so we all didn´t stay at the same place, but we still all got together each night in Krakow. Our first night we all went out to dinner at this place called Sioux. Basically it was this Indian/wild west themed restaurant. I don´t know if they were just bad translations, but the names of the dishes on the English menu were hilarious! For example, there was one dish called "Juicy Manitou cult chopped with a tomahawk by Alan Pinkerton at high noon" (steak) or another favorite was the one called "Killed bison playing dice for his soul so that his flesh remains in one piece" You might think that´s made up, but I assure you its not. I took a picture of the menu and copied it word for word just now.. LOL! Afterwards we went back to their hostel, had some yummy fruity beer and played cards..

The next morning, Mike and I went to the Wieliczka Salt Mines just outside of Krakow. Ugh I wish I was connected through the laptop so I could post pictures, cause this place was really cool! Basically it was this huge underground network of tunnels and caves all filled with crazy sculptures and carvings made right into the salt.. there was even a huge underground chapel. I think the guide said altogether there were like 300kms of tunnels, but we only were able to tour a small percentage of them, about 135 meters below the surface. It was pretty cold down there, but that made up for the hour we had to wait outside inline in the blazing sun.. hehe.. When we got back from Wieliczka, we worked on planning the next bit of our journey. We had a few things to juggle around regarding visiting some of Mike´s family. His cousin in Vienna is going on holidays soon, so we had to kind of kill some more time over on this side of the continent, and Mike was also busy contacting his family here in the Czech Republic. It all worked out great though, and we have decided to go to Croatia for 10 days as a little vacation from the vacation, lol. So many people have told us how beautiful it is - I can´t wait for those beaches in Dubrovnik!

Yesterday we toured Auschwitz and Birkenau, the two main concentraion camps used during the Holocaust. It was awful and I don´t think I can even describe what it was like there. You always hear about it, but to actually be able to connect a place and faces and evidence with the word Holocaust is really something else. Being here I´ve become so much more fascinated with the War and really the history of the last century or so. When I have time I would really love to study it further..

This morning we caught a train to Ostrava, Czech Republic. We almost missed our train, because we thought it came at 8:30, not 8:12!! Train stations here are pretty huge, and when you first enter, there are huge boards listing all the upcoming departures. As soon as we saw what the actual time was, we started RUNNING as fast as we could with our dang heavy packs. It was brutal (especially the stairs), but worth it because we made the train! (it also helped that the train was running 5mins late!) Normally that wouldn´t have been such a big deal, but we had Mike´s family expecting us and picking us up from the station in Ostrava. When we arrived, Lubos and his girlfriend Petra were there for us, and drove us to their town of Palkovice, where we are staying tonight. After a DELICIOUS multi course meal, Lubos and his mom Hela took us to this open air museum place which I can´t remember the name of at the moment! We got there 30min before it closed, so we didn´t have much time.. it was still cool though. Hela bought me a little ceramic weiner dog, which was so sweet of her! It looks just like one of the dogs they have here at the house. After, Lubos took us to the Aquapark which was so awesome! It has been sooo hot over here, and we have been dying to go swimming. It was grrreat. When we got home we spent some time looking at old pictures of Mike´s family. It was neat to see pics of his mom and grandma from like 50yrs ago. Hela explained best she could, although the language barier was quite difficult at times. We made a deal that she will practice and we will learn Czech for the next time we visit!

Tomorrow morning we are off to Kojetin for a night to meet some more of his relatives, and now I´m going to go to bed, with my stuff all spread out on the floor and not locked up. I think I may even leave my money belt out on the nightstand cause I feel daring lol.. Ahhhh its a nice feeling not worrying about people stealing your stuff! hehe..

<3 shanon