warsaw, poland

so the train here wasn't as bad as we thought it would be.. we had heard all these stories about theives and whatnot, but it felt just like any other train ride. That doesn't mean we weren't watching our bags like hawks though, lol..

Our hostel is ok, turns out there is no wireless internet like the ad said, so sorry no pics once again! We have a guy with pneumonia in our room.. he says it's not contagious and i REALLY hope he's right =S. Last night was also brutal... we had the loudest snorer i have ever heard. He was completely drunk, which I don't think helped. Everyone in the 10 bed dorm was awake and laughing at him actaully. No one could believe what we were hearing.. One guy tried waking him up, but even that was impossible.. *sigh* I think he's switched rooms though, so we should be able to get some sleep tonight.

Our first night here we went out for a niiiice meal because things are so much cheaper here. We walked all around and finally settled on this mexican place. We ordered a dish called the "El Presidente" lol, which was this huge plate of all sorts of stuff - chicken wings, quesidillas, salad, chicken skewers.. just piles of food. The waitress even asked if we were sure we wanted that when we ordered because it was so much, but we said bring it on.. and we finished it! well, almost.. except for a few wings, which we had packed up to go. It was soooo delicious!

The next morning, (yesterday) we went to this place called the Russian Market. Basically it's this old outdoor stadium filled with anything you could ever want to buy, all for dirt cheap. I got a tube of Lancome Juicy Tubes lipgloss, ($20 back home) for $3!! Score! There was also all sorts of WWII memorabilia which was really interesting. We kind of doubted the authenticity of some of the items, but if you think about it, why wouldn't there be an abundance of those types of things here? Poland was right in the middle of so much of the action. There was this one vendor that spoke good english, so we talked to him about his items, and felt better about that instead of being ripped of because we don't speak Polish. Mike ended up buying this Nazi medal, one that would have been given to politicians within the Nazi party, not like a soldier's medal. There were so many fascinating objects, and I wanted to buy so many of them - pins, pocket knives, lighters, matchboxes, cigarette cases, all bearing either the swastika or SS logos. They were all very pricey though. Mike's medal ended up costing about 80 Canadian I think. I bought a Jewish armband for about 30 Canadian. During the war all Jewish people were made to wear armbands identifying them as being Jewish. It's a simple cotton band, with the star of David embroidered onto it, with "Jood" written in the middle. I think it's a neat peice of history for me to own, and sombering to think that this probably belonged to someone who never got to see the end of the war.

We had bought an all day transit pass for yesterday, and actaully had quite a few adventures on the bus. We didn't bother learning what buses went where, we would just get on a bus that was headed in the direction that we wanted to go. The problem with this was that sometimes the buses would turn.. lol and take us way in the wrong direction. Also, the stops are a lot farther apart, so we would end up having to walk and back track a lot.. haha.. it was funnier than it probably sounds.. We also went to the old town quarter of Warsaw, and a large park with the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. We also went to the grocery store and stocked up on stuff for dinner and breakfast this morning.. bacon and eggs! The bacon was kind of weird though, but I guess it was better than the toast we usually eat..

Tomorrow we're on to Krakow, where I think there will be more for us to do. We already have a couple of day trips lined up.

<3 shanon