Around the world

So, for Christmas, I got Rick Steves' Best of Eastern Europe 2005. Again, thanks Ivan and Marc. I don't think I could actually function in "Eastern Europe" without this book. It's got everything you need to know for short trips. Andie (Geo's sister) and I set off on a whirlwind trip, each of us with a clean pair of socks and underwear, an Eastern Europe Train Pass, and Rick Steves. Really, I don't know if you need much more than that. We set off Thursday pretty early. We were on the 11:18 am train to Kraków and we got in at 21:08 (or thereabouts). It was drizzling, but it was a very short walk from the train station to the hotel we booked (from RS). We had dinner downstairs in the hotel's restaurant, which was tasty and cheap. Then we played cards for a few hours before bed. I've turned into a night owl, but I guess it was a late night for Andie. We got up sort of early and took off to the main square to book a driver to Auschwitz. While we waited for the driver, we looked all around the square. We shopped at the Cloth Hall. We had a pizza snack (garlic cheese bread with dill--very yummy). Then we drove an hour and a half to Auschwitz. We spent about 2 hours there, taking in as much as we could handle. It was not raining, but it was very cloudy and quite cold. I kept thinking that the winters must have been miserable there for the victims, as if the rest of the year wasn't bad already. After the challenging visit, we made it back to town and shopped some more on the main square and had a nice dinner at another restaurant that was recommended by Rick (completely unintentionally, as it was). We had a few hours to kill before our train at 22:30, so we went and had some wine and coffee at a fancy hotel's bar (much cheaper than a fancy hotel's bar in Prague would be!). We boarded the train on time, we had reserved a sleeping car ahead of time (one female roommate from South Korea joined us).
We crossed two borders on our way to Budapest (Poland/Slovakia and Slovakia/Hungary). That meant we got woken up twice, but we got lots of new stamps in our passports. We pulled into the train station at 9:22 (20 minutes after I thought we were supposed to get in). Geo was so sweet to meet us there. His train from Prague came in at about 8:00, so he had some time to wait for us. We knew our train was getting in at this new time, but Geo didn't know. I'm glad he waited for us. We met up promptly after we arrived and went to the metro to find our hostel. I booked a hostel a few days before we left, based on a website I found (not Rick Steves). We got down there and the hostel just looked bad. I didn't think I could handle sleeping there, so we agreed to leave. Fortunately, there was a Best Western across the street, so we checked in there. It cost a lot more, but it was really nice. I'm not saying that hostels aren't nice, but this one didn't look a thing like the picture. So, in our new place, we showered and then went on a 3 hour bus tour. That was really fun. We saw a lot of the sights, got off to walk around at a few places, and took a lot of pictures (on Andie's camera--to be posted soon, I hope). That evening, we took a Danube River boat cruise. It was really pretty at night, and the boat showed pictures of the buildings as we passed by. We learned a lot on that one hour trip. After that, it was nearly bedtime. On Sunday, we didn't have much to do (as almost everything is closed) so we went to the baths. Budapest is full of hot thermal springs, with a rich history of "baths". It was a beautiful sunny day (not quite "warm" but maybe about 6 degrees C). Andie and I both got a 30 minute massage. Then it was about time to go back to the train station to go home. We got on a 14:30 train and we were home by 23:00. It was a fast and furious trip, but a lot of fun! It's great to go to new places and see new things, even if it's a short trip.
I really hope to have the pictures from Andie's camera soon. She's on her way home right now, so it might be a few days before I can get them from her.