Japan to Australia via Eastern Europe - Part 12 - Day 10 - Prague to Krakow, Poland...

We were awaken by some stewpid brits ringing the wrong intercom number at 7am in the morning... I tell them "politely" to pi!! off...!

We have our usual casual breakfast at the apartment and, as per clockwork, Sky News are still harping on about the freed UK Soliders in Iran (talk about over analysis to the extreme..!).

Ant and I quickly pack up our stuff and leave the gucci apartment for the last time. It was a really nice apartment but it was a little less functional than the original apartment. The kitchen was a lot less usable (no dishwasher, or oven, or bottleopener) and there was no bide in the toilet (no!) but the bed was heaps better.

We make tracks (walking) to the main train station to drop our bags. Prague's train station was an odd mix of old school europe architecture and old school 1970's grungy communist architecture. It was like if they had plonked the Belconnen Mall smack bang in the middle of some grand old europe railway station. It also had the added bonus of smelling like pi++! plus some grungy looking people to go with it.

We dump our bags in the grungy baggage lockers - Ant was a bit worried that someone would try and break in. Perhaps next time - we just leave our bags at the apartment instead?? At least the apartment didn't smell like pi%%!

We walk back into the main shopping district in town and check out the H&M "formal edition" store. I buy a top and some jeans but Ant chucks a me from yesterday and splurges.

Our train was about 1pm-ish so we had a little time to kill - so we finally checked out the Museum of Communism. The museum itself is smack bang in the middle of a McDonalds, a casino (which suspiciously looked like the Canberra Casino... because it is owned by the same people Ant informs me as I'm typing) and a United Colours of Beneton across the street. How ironic or something. It was 180 a krown admission fee and it was a "privately owned museum" affair. If anyone has had the unpleasant fortune of visiting the Checkpoint Charlie muesum in Berlin - you would probably know that privately operated museums aren't usually as of a high standard as state owned museums are... The Museum of Communism, although a lot better than the Checkpoint Charlie museum, was a little clapped out and undercooked. It was more of a collection of communist junk in a claustrophic grungy room than a proper museum. Although it did have some interesting pictures of the building of the Stalin statue in Prague (and its subsequent destruction - a la Kate Carnell demolition style baby). Of bizzare note - Ant doesn't buy any of the communist posters on sale at the museum... shock!

We had lunch at a nearby pizzeria which was reasonably priced. Although in true Eastern European style - my pasta came out about 20 mins after Ant's pizza... gotta love Eastern European service.

Heading back to the station - some locals were giving us a bit of a memorable send off. Some hobo was urinating in the middle of a park outside the station - and there was no sign of any shrubbery or tree anywhere near where he was pi%%ing... Also there was some crazy woman dancing near a gyro take out place - and there wasn't any music being played anywhere... Ohh Prague - the memories.

I use all of my left over krown to buy some supplies from a local "7-11" store where bags cost extra and smiles were non-existant.

Our train trip to Krakow was pretty non-eventful. We were in a little 6 person cabin - where some crazy czech woman (with no ticket) was sitting in Ant's seat. We think she was a fifty year old pro who will probably be half deaf listening to her retro CD player with bad 80's czech music at full blast. She also flashed her legs at the conductor when she didn't have her ticket. She got off at the next stop.

Plus it was my first passport control where I was listening to my Ipod and wearing sunglasses at the same time.

We had a couple of beers at the dining cart which was fairly retro whilst having retro prices.

We arrive at Krakow about 9:45pm-ish and the station seemed pretty seedy (what is it about train stations and the levels of seediness?). There were some drunks and louts getting arrested by the local SS stormtroopers... I mean police (although they had the whole skin head SS look down pat).

It was a bit of a marathon 20 min walk to the Lemon Hostel (which was on the other side of the Town Square from the railway station)... My bag isn't really all that conducive to long hikes (it sags and there is no waist support, or spinal support). On the way - we noticed that there was a bit of a theme with Krakow Hostel names - there was the Orange Hostel and the Blue Hostel (which was living up to its name because it was upstairs from a strip joint). Krakow was looking like a more spread out version of Prague - beautiful old buildings and cobblestone roads - just a less dense version of Prague.

We check into our double room at the hostel with no problems... although at 1am we were rudely awakened by some Italians who came home and made a loud racket. Ant got up and started to give them a taste of a "shushing fit" which seemed to do the job well.