We're sorry - here's the rest of the week

We feel really bad to have left the faithful hangin' - I was trying to persuade Bree to write the second half and she just didn't go for it. And we've just been swamped ever since...

BUT... Krakow was incredible - based on the 17 hours that we were there.

When we arrived at 5 am, we purchased what we thought we round-trip tickets out to Auschwitz, which was the main reason we had come up to Poland.

It was a beautiful day and it was hard to fathom the many dark nights and atrocities that occurred there - the site of one of the most horrific concentration camps run by the Nazis. Each barracks had been turned into an exhibit, detailing the lives of real people who were murdered there. Some of the exhibits made it quite apparent that it was not just Germans, but many nationalities who contributed to this horror. It is absolutely apalling what man is capable of doing to another man.

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The train ride back to Krakow - on which we'd hoped to grab a nap - turned out to be slightly more eventful than we'd anticipated. Unable to read the Polish on our tickets, we checked at the ticket counter to make sure we had the right ticket to go back. The lady nodded her head and pointed us to the platform. We asked specifically about the train time.

After boarding the train, the conductor came around to inspect tickets - he didn't like what he saw on ours and began to explain that we needed to purchase another ticket. We pleaded our case - the tickets were going to be five times what we'd paid for the original tickets! I think it was at least 60 zloty's. After a bit of arguing, the man got a woman to serve as an interpreter and brought in boss down for good measure.

There was a British man sitting next to us who also did not have the right ticket - for all of us had mistakenly boarded a EUROCITY train - which apparently are more upsacle and cost more accordingly. Allegedly it was also supposed to be faster - which it wasn't.

The translator backfired on the train enforcers - as she sympathized with the poor little Australian couple (they thought we were Australian and we didn't correct them, not wanting to taint the image of our country any more than it already is). Eventually we got off with a severe reprimand... and our blood pressure returned to normal.

Once we got our bank statement, it turned out that it was 15 pounds that they were asking for. Way more than the train ride was worth, but possibly not a significant enough some to have bickered over. Oh well. The British man also got off with a warning and liked us so much that he invited us back to his hotel for a mid-afternoon snack. Quite a unique man he was - allegedly he was a former world champion boxer who now has done research for such projects as Schlindler's List.

Krakow was a relaxing afternoon - we did a bit of walking, sitting on benches, and looking out over the river. Very pleasant city - and very rapidly growing. New construction projects were being advertised everywhere. Tourism has been boosted by the fact that it is so cheap - we both ordered an incredible dinner for 3 euros each - sheer pocket change when translated into pounds.

Then it was back into our 64 cubic feet - this time we were on the train for 11 hours. We arrived back to Budapest at 9 in the morning. We went promptly to the hostel that I had booked in advance - the only city where we'd made such long-term plans. We thought that since we'd stayed in a nice hotel - remember the rain water flushing toilets? - in Vienna that we could go a little more budget for a couple nights in Budapest.

Well... we got there and had to climb four steep flights of stairs, and wait 30 minutes to get checked in, met the smooth-talking but strangely shady owner, and then be led by the maid to another building two blocks away. There we were supposed to find a double bed en suite. Rather, there were six home-constructed single wooden beds that were about 3 inches off the ground and the bathroom was shared among at least two other dormitory type arrangements.

Tears weren't quite flowing out of Bree's eyes yet, but I made the call and aborted that mission - which required going back up the steepest stairs ever.

So our first day in Budapest was then spent trying to find a place to stay - we landed a winner with the Queen Mary Hotel... it even had free broadband.

That afternoon we went to the much-hyped Statue Park, home of old statues from the Communist Era. It was a good hour and a half by public transportation - where we found an overgrown park with some extremely large stone monuments that provided a striking symbolic image of how Communism has been left behind. We probably experienced a few other deep thoughts, but it's more of a verbal discussion than a written commentary.

Dinner was Syrian - wonderful and affordable.

The next day we went on a Yellow Zebra bike tour - being the only two people on the tour, we experienced Buda and Pest up close and personal. (It's two sister cities separated by a river FYI). Our guide was noteworthy himself - his wife is an Olympic-caliber fencer from Canada and he's an aspiring vocalist. We definitely vouch for the bike-tour method of learning European History and Culture.

Like good Hungarians, we headed to the baths for the afternoon. No, it was not a naked affair. The naturally heated water was relaxing, no doubt about it. And I enjoyed watching some older men playing chess, while Bree watched an Arab football squad horsing around in the water.

That night we once again went to a delightful but well-priced dinner and then hopped on a river cruise tour for a bit of reinforcement of our Hungarian history - who by the way call themselves Mygamar (sp?) people.

Then, sadly, our vacation began to come to an end. We ate at Pizza Hut for lunch - it was a weird craving and we'd had our fill of interesting dishes at this point. The flight home was uneventful.

We decided that we LOVE vacation and hope to go again soon. It really makes you wonder if this whole work thing is really all it's cracked up to be.