Poland

Well yesterday i slept 24 hours!!!!!!!!! no really well i went to bed in the wee hours of the morning after i danced the night away at a place where they play a great variety of music including, footloose, grease, U2, and the song from the movie life of brian!!! "look on the bright side of life" how funny is that, they even played Led Zepplin and Janis Joplin, it was great. i went out with people from the hostal, mostly irish and scottish girls who called me "the cool american" and the stinky guys from my room, and some other people. well anyways, i went to get in bed and found the blond dread lock guy from australia in my bed. not only was he in my bed,his head was on the wrong side which sounds better except that his disgusting stinky feet were on my pillow!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes once again my poor little tavel pillow has been violated. he was like all passed out on my poncho thing and pajamas. i'm like dude!!! get up!!! he was soooooo passed out and i was NOT about to jump into his gross bed or any other gross bed around. So i was pulling on his dread locks and poking his face, it took a while to wake him up, finally he's like, oh is this your bed? i am getting tired of that flippin question, it's like yeah man, obviously, it doesn't stink does it? NO is it all cute and clean? YES, out out out out, so he gets his drunk butt off my bed, and JUMPS from my top bunk his top bunk, i have no words to express my feelings at that moment. anyways i go to bed. wake up at 12 noon, go get some fruit, go back to bed, wake up at 6, to go get something to eat, go back to bed. i spent the whole day in my bed, reading and relaxing it was nice and the stinky boys weren't in there cause they were probably out drinking somewhere. Well it was night again and starting at 2:30 am, the boys start stumbling in 1 by 1.

first guy: The blond dread lock australian, comes in kicking his way to HIS bunk because tonight i was in my bed and NO ONE was getting in my bed tonight. He climbs to the top and just throws himself on his bed with shoes and clothes on, and in 30 seconds starts snoring.

second guy: comes in 20 minutes later, you see i am wide awake cause i've been sleeping all day and this was fantastic evening entertainment. Okay now second guy is really funny cause he comes stumbling drunk, very very drunk, and he doesn't even make it to his bed! he lands like half way. The guy is like 21 yrs old and is like 6ft tall wearing shorts, shirt and chanclas (flip flops) he's huge and from his waist down, he's hanging of the bed, the other half is asleep on the bed, i was laughing so hard i thought maybe i should help him get on his bed cause his back would hurt the next day, then i thought, well i'm sure his friend will come in soon...which leads to third guy

third guy: third guy is kind of short, british i believe, not sure, i know his name is johnny but among the stinky boys they refer to him as rat boy. so rat boy flings the door open like 20 minutes after second guy and sees his friend COMPLETELY passed on on his bed and half on the floor and second guy was really snoring at this point. so third guy like tries to shove second guy onto his bed somehow cause he's really big and this rat boy guy is quite small. he pushes him into a fetal position and then like shoves all the blankets and pillow on his friends head to muffle the snoring!!! i was like dude he's goiong to suffocate, rat boy was like, no he's fine, he does that all the time. so then third guy sees that first guy had all his clothes and shoes on and decided to take his friends shoes off which i wasn't happy about cause his feet stink. anyways third guy goes to bed.

fourth guy: fourth guy comes in like 5 minutes after third guy. fourth guy was easy cause he has a bottom bunk (below mine) and just had to walk 2 steps just to be able to fall right in to bed

fifth guy: some poor lost spanish guy travelling alone who didn't speak any english trying to find his bed, i offered to help at that moment

so there i was with all my stinky roomates. well next day i finally peeled myself out of bed at 11:00am, i had spent a whole day relaxing. When i woke up, the other guys starting waking up as well and asked me how i felt. I asked why are you asking me that, they were like "are you hungover" i told them i didn't go out last night i stayed in bed. well i went to the train station to buy a ticket to prague and see if i still had enough time to go to visit Auschwitz, which i did. I visited Auschwitz and got back into Krakow at 8:00pm. i met a guy from seattle on the bus back from Auschwitz and he had to catch a train to budapest in 3 hours so we decided to have dinner together, after we finished eating, we exchanged e-mails, as everyone does and hopes to maybe see each other in Salzburg where he was going to be in 2 weeks time like me. I walked back to my hostal and said goodbye to the scottish girls that i had met the night before, they were off to budapest. Well i went to my bed to get my Little Twin Star book i carry with me with all my information written in it, like all the hostals i stay at and my laundry details so i make sure i get all my laundry back, anyways i left it on my bed with other stuff and to my surprise, my lovely and mature roomates that stink wrote on the page that the book was left open on "FUCK THE BULLSHIT" i was like oookkkaaayyyy, what's this? i swear i felt like their mom, i was like "i am going to find those boys blah blah blah and punish them for 10 minutes blah blah blah" until i was like, whatever, i'll leave it in the book to always remember them. I found the blond dread lock guy and i showed him the book and he said "yeah man....funny" i was like alright. I took a picture of the room with all the stinky crap everywhere so all of you can see. Anyway i leave for prague tomm and i have a very CHEAP hostal where i have my OWN ROOM!!!!! i am sooooooooooooooo happy. it's 13 euros a night, i have to share a bathroom, which is fine, whatever, just give me my own room and bed. okay bye for now!

Well last night i decided to go for a walk around the city and go for a drink. i popped into this very cool bohemian bar. There weren't any tables available or any free bar stools at the bar so i sat at the end of the bar where there was only bar stool that was left which was situated right next to the red bull fridge dispensar thing that was on the bar. There was also a rotating fan right next to it. The bartendar couldn't see me because the fan and the red bull fridge were blocking his view. i tried to get his attention but was unsuccesful, everytime i raised my hand the fan blew in my face, i was like this is not fun. finally some woman saw me struggling to get his attention and she pointed at me. he asked me what i wanted and i asked for a glass of wine. then 2 minutes later i see i glass of wine pop up from under the fan, i guess he couldn't bother finding me and knew i was around there somewhere behind the fan and the red bull fridge. after making a bit of a nuisance out of myself, i sat there and enjoyed my glass of wine. There was some guy at the other end of the bar that saw i was alone and was trying to make eye contact with me through the fan, i was like no buddy, sorry, ain't gonna happen. After i finished my glass of wine i walked around the city and popped into a cafe to have a beer. it was a small cafe so it was obvious i was alone and a foreigner. i asked for a beer and grabbed some magazines they had on the shelf for people to read while they drink. well i sat down with my beer and read a Cosmopolitan magazine 2002 front to back in Polish. It was obvious i didn't read polish i was kind of just looking at the pictures. I think everyone in the bar knew too. i really studied the pictures in detail cause i couldn't read the magazine. Has anyone ever noticed how long Naomi Campbells legs are? Damn they're long! i think i learned how to say mascara in polish. anyways after 45 minutes of instense polish cosmopolitan reading i left the bar and watched some street performers. I was extremely moved by one of them. He played the guitar and harmonica and none of his songs sounded like cover songs, they sounded orginal. I sat there for a while and listened to him play. I hung around a bit more and ate a falafel at some kebab stand, then i made my way back to the hostal. There was of course a bit of a party going on in the hostal. i was thinking why are you partying in the hostal, you're in Krakow, go have a beer out there. anyways, i walked into my room and turn the lights on and found all the guys in their beds and the room was STINKY! it wasn't like armpit stinky, it was like foot stinky, like when i shared a room with all my brothers, that is exactly what it smelled like. i just ignored it. i washed my face and tried to read my book in the common room, but there was so much noise and the funny part was that there were like 7 people asleep on the floor, i was like, okay i'm going to bed. I went to my stinky boy room where half of them are snoring and letting their stinky feet hang everywhere, it's so funny when i think about it now. anyways today i just wandered around and read my book in the plaza. now i am on my way to a cafe to have a coffee and read my book.

I just accidentally erased everything i wrote and now i don't have time to write it all out again so i am just going to have to sum it up now, sorry. You know i just want to mention how difficult i am finding it to write in english, i have to go back and correct so much and i find myself speaking like a pigeon or speaking the way people speak english that don't speak it very good, it's horrible, i've been gone too long where i speak like crap, either that or like a british person anyways, I caught a train this morning to krakow which is in the south of poland. I had a hard time buying the train ticket cause i can't speak polish (once again) so some girl saw me struggling and asked me if i needed help, i told her i wanted to catch the next train to krakow, but i wanted a cheap ticket, the cheapest if at all possible. So she explained everthing to the woman and i got a ticket leaving in the next 2 hours for krakow. While i was in the train station i saw an ad for Paulo Coehlo's new book called "The Zahir" I read his book last year called "The Alchemist" It was the first and only novel i have ever read, the only books i have ever read are history books (besides hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, Basil goes to Mexico, which is a fantastic book by the way about a mouse detective that goes to mexico to crack the crime on who stole the mousa lisa, a must read! and most Beverly Cleary books) So anyway The Alchemist is by far the best thing i have ever read and i personally consider it my bible, if anyone wants to ever try to understand me, read this book, it's like about me, it's amazing, i read it in 4 hours, i couldn't put it down, i felt this book was written just for me. anyways so i bought his latest book thinking it's got to be good. i've already read half of it on the train and it's great. anyways after reading the book and contemplating life which i love to do in my free time on my 4 1/2 hour train ride, i arrived in krakow. I tried to find my hostal which was nowhere nears the train station, i checked in and dropped off my stuff. i'm getting tired of this room sharing thing, cause nearly everywhere i go it's a bunch of kids like in college partying and talking bullshit, it's getting annoying, i feel like an old lady around them, but it's a cheap place to stay even though i have to share with like 7 frat guys drinking beer. anyways i freshened up after walking into a naked man prancing around in the bathroom (very interesting) i swear man i need to get my own room one of these days on my trip cause i am just getting annoyed now, and am i the only girl travelling out here? So i set off to walk around the city, i grab a bite to eat and walk around. It's absolutely fantastic and beautiful, i have 4 nights booked here so i have plenty of time to walk around and take pictures. While i was walking some guy, like a young guy started speaking to me in some language i didn't understand, he had a box under his arm like he was trying to sell soemthing, i said (no entiendo, no entiendo) i always play the part i don't speak english that i speak spanish cause the possiblities of that person speaking spanish are very very slim compared to speaking english. well he busts out this little book that has whatever he wants to say translated in all kinds of languages. He told me in spanish that he is from the ukraine and is selling ukranian arts and crafts items to raise money for college, ( i swear i have a face of a sucker) i asked him what he was studying and he told me he was studying geology. well i took a look at his stuff and it was all wooden made crafty things. i saw one of those russian dolls where you keep opening them up and more poeople are inside and he sad "no, those are NOT russian dolls, they are ukranian, look open, you have first father, then mother, then son, then cat, then the family CHICKEN! i was like oh yeah, i've got to get me one of these!!!!!!! they have the family cat and chicken, this is the bomb, how much you want? he said "30 Zlotys " i was like oh mannnnnnnnnnnn i can't i really don't have any money either and i don't know how the hell i'm going to finish college, so i bought a braclet. I asked him his name, he told me his name was Yura, i told him my brother middle name was similiar, it was Yuri, he said there was a russian version of that name and Ukranian. anyways after he left i felt bad cause i really wanted the ukranian doll family thing with the chicken, so i turned around like 5 minutes later contemplating whether i should get it or not. i walked back hoping to find him and did, i saw him and i'm like hi, it's me the girl that wanted to ukranian doll family. I told him i wanted the doll family, so i gave back the bracelet and gave him 20 zlotys. he was amazed and laughing at the same time. i was like what are you laughing at, he's like "you're funny, you came back to buy the doll family" i'm like "yeah" he told me i was super and that i hopefully we would see each other tomm. i was very happy with my doll family thing and the money went to a good cause. i haven't bought anything on this trip anyways cause i have to carry everything on my back and i can't carry anymore. Well now i have my ukranian fimly doll in my purse and now i am here writing this cause it started to rain. i have 10 minutes left on the computer so i gotta go, bye!

Well i finally decided to go to Warsaw, Poland. I skipped Vilnius, Lithuania cause i heard nothing but bad things about it. nobody had anything good to say about it and that it was very very boring and no one was out on the street afer 10pm. I am very eager to get to Krakow, Poland which i only hear fantastic things about, so i skipped lithuania and went straight to poland. I took a bus from Riga to Warsaw which took 12 hours.......not fun. It left at 6pm and arrived at 6am in Warsaw. luckily the bus wasn't very full so i was able to lay down across the 2 seats. We had to pass through lithuania and let me tell you, everyone was right, oh my god there wasn't a soul out on the street and all the lights were off in all the houses, actually it was very spooky, i'm glad i didn't go there. Well i tried to sleep but didn't, i was very uncomfortable. when i arrived in Warsaw it started to rain and it was 6am. i had to catch a bus to my hostal and i knew i had to catch bus #127 to... are you ready......Swietokryska, yeah have fun pronouncing that, so i couldn't ask anybody where it was cause i couldn't pronounce it, but then i would show them what i had written down and they couldn't read my writing, so i'm like whatever, i got on the bus only to slowly realize that the bus was taking me out of the city, so i thought maybe i am going the wrong way, so i got off and got on the bus going the other way. It took me a while to find everything cause the street names and everything were very difficult to read. the cross street i was looking for was Marszalkowska, and to me all the street names looked the same and i couldn't tell the difference and not sleeping for 24 hours after a 12 hour bus ride and carrying around a huge backpack i was not in the mood. I was looking for the Oki Doki Hostel, that's right, Oki Doki. well i finally found the Oki Doki hostel walked up the 3 flights of stairs only to find that no one was at reception, there was no one to talk to or anything and i saw a sign that said check-in 3pm, i was like what! oh no i need to go to bed now and this is defintely not oki doki with me. i couldn't believe no one was at reception. so i sat in a corner with my stuff and ended up falling aleep on some chair. i woke up and found myself drooling on my sweater with my glasses falling off my face, i quickly composed myself and went up to reception and was like "hi, i have a room reserved" i'm sure i looked horrible cause he looked at me a bit strange then asked me for my passport. he said that my bed is ready and i could go to bed now, i thanked him. I took a shower and went to bed. It was pouring rain outside so it was a good day to spend in bed. when i got up i freshened up and decided to find a supermarket to buy some food, well you think that sounds easy but no no no no,i walked all over that sweitorskasjkj whatever street and all around my hostal, and could not find a damn place to buy food. well i found a little delicatessen, but i can't speak polish, they can't speak any language i speak and sign language wasn't working, so i kept walking. it was pouring rain outside, like pooooouring rain and it was freezing and windy, my poor little purple giraffe umbrella was giving it everything it had to shelter me, but the wind kept flipping it upwards, oh it was horrible. i finally bought some fruit off some street vendors and found a little local market by my hostal where i bought some bread and cheese and what i hope was turkey. i didn't have enough Zlotys (polish money) so i had to go take out money. Well when i was at the atm machine my umbrella flew away, like flew into the air, i was like noooooooooooooooooo please noooooooooooo my UMBRELLAAAAAAAAAAAAA and my card was in the machine and i had a second to figure out what to do so i tried to cancel the transaction i was making but couldn't make out which button i had to press cause it was all in polish, so i pressed the red one and it gave me my card back and then i ran after my umbrella, i chased it down screaming, MY UMBRELLLAAAAAAAAA HELP ME, and it was pouring down rain, well i finally caught up to it and went back to atm machine to take out money, i just wanted to cry, but didn't. I got back to the hostal, ate and then i decided to go visit the old jewish ghetto. Now my impression of warsaw at this point was very sad. It is a city that was nearly destroyed during WW2, The nazi's wanted to burn it to the ground and quite frankly succeded, Warsaw looks very post WW2 you can see that everything was built within the last 55 years or so. I didn't feel very safe either. Well i went looking for what were the remains of the wall that was built around the jewish ghetto. It was difficult to find, and isn't well marked. There isn't much wall left and it's tucked away in an apartment structure, very hard to find. There was only one guy around and it was very quiet. It was so so so sad, i didn't feel comfortable there so i left, it was so hard to stand where thousands and thousands of people died of starvation and exaustion. There was one more place where there are remains of the ghetto, and i wasn't sure if i wanted to see it, but i thought, i won't be coming back to warsaw anytime soon, so i'll go. This time there weren't just remains of a wall, they were the remains of the aparments where the jews lived. They were left just the way they were. The building was half gone but you could still see chairs, tables, personal items hanging from the windows that were shattered and broken. I couldn't even take a picture, i felt it was disrespectful and just wanted to leave. I felt ill. I could feel thousands of screaming voices everywhere, it's somewhere i prefer never to visit again. After visiting these 2 places i went for a long walk and decided to see a movie. i went to see batman begins. Then when the movie was over i was walking back to the hostal and heard some jazz music, so i walkled in this cool jazz bar and ordered a glass of wine. after the band finished i sat outside and watched everybody talk to their friends as i finished my wine. i then went back to the hostal and talked to the irish couple that was sharing a room with me. Then i decided to go out a bit and found a club where i danced for like an hour. Then i went to a little bar where they were playing flamenco rumba music and salsa, so you know who got her groove on that night, i was a little dancing machine. i got back to the hostal around 4:30am I woke up,well let's say, i finally left my room at 3pm the next day, ate lunch and went for a walk. I got lost, which was great cause i stumbled upon the old part of warsaw...BEAUTIFUL. WOW, warsaw is BEAUTIFUL, the old part is absolutely breathtaking. i sat in the plaza with an old man who gave me bread to feed the pigeons. It was alot of fun. He was talking to me in polish forever. Then he asked me what languages i spoke, and i told him english and spanish so he spoke to me in italian which was probably a good medium for both of us. The pigeons were getting really close to me and starting walking on my feet,i was like oh my god how cute, and they kept looking at me saying "hey lady throw some more bread" So anyway after the pigeon feeding session I walked around until i found this internet cafe and started to write this. You know i have to condense so much, cause i already spend and hour and a half writing all of this, and sometimes it's hard to find a computer and the time to write this so, there is so much more that happens and so much more detail and feeling but i guess i'll just have to share it personally with everybody cause i couldn't possibly write everything. well i want to go have a coffee or something, i've got more pigeons to feed!