Krakow, Budapest & Home

Hi all!

I'm at home again! No more holidays for me! :-(

Well, that's not exactly true. Still am time rich, and not too money poor to not enjoy myself.

Krakow was excellent. I arrived in the evening and found a hostel quite easily - the Travellers Inn. It was really small, clean and neat... and was playing jazz music in the common room :-)

I chatted to randoms for a bit, and left the hostel at about 7pm to find some food. I went to Chlopsie Jadlo, which is an award winning traditional restaurant that I'd been to in 2002. After starting with huge chunks of bread (with spredings of pork dripping and gristle - nicer than it sounds - and herby cream chesese) I finished with a 400g serving of potato pancakes and goulash. During dinner I met Ada and Jeff from Montreal, who invited me out to drink with them. Just as we were leaving, they bumped into Mike and Joanna, who Ada knew from Canada! It was all very random... we made plans to meet up at a jazz club later that night. It turns out Mike and Joanna are moving to London in a few weeks, so will be good to hook up with them again here.

So I finally saw some jazz! But we were talking so much I wasn't paying too much attention. I'd been in the club 2 years ago, but the band was better last time (and the locals more drunk!). After the jazz club we tracked down a nightclub called Faust. We talked and drank until 3am, and when the others left (to drink more in Mike & Joanna's apartment) I hit the dancefloor for a few hours... although the music was better earlier in the night. I climbed out of the club at 5-something am... tis always weird when you walk back to your bed in daylight!

Fortunately checkout was at midday. I took my time getting ready, knowing that it was the last place I'd have a shower before reaching home. I'd left my shower gel and shampoo behind (in Prague) again (or did I tell you that already?) so twas soap for shampoo... ick!

After dropping off my bag at the station I met the crazy canadians again, at 2pm. They were looking marginally worse than me even! Although I always feel better after a night of dancing and drinking than just drinking. We strolled around, ate and drank stuff, and relaxed tons. Considering I'd seen many of the sights of Krakow in my last visit, it was nice to relax for a bit. After drinking a cino on the curb outside a funkily decorated cafe (err we were getting weird looks from the locals) I took off to stroll the streets for my last few hours in the city. The night train to Budapest left at 9pm so had time to take a photo or two.

The train to Budapest was quite comfy. I had sleeping irishmen in my cochette cabin so sat nextdoor to chat with three generations of holidaying Americans and two brittish girls. At midnight I climbed into bed. I heard someone outside my cabin making ghost noises - "ooohhhh Sammmm... you'll have nightmares... we'll come to get you Sam..." . It turns out that these crazy Italians that I met (and were being quite annoying) on the Prague - Krakow night train were also on the same train with me to Budapest! They tried to be annoying but I just closed the curtains and was able to sleep.

The next morning I left my bag at the train station and started walking around. After walking for nearly 1 hour to get breakfast on a floating platform on the Danube, I read and walked another hour to read, relax and sleep in a big park north of the city centre. At around 4pm I went to the Szechenyi Baths. They are quite old, and were nice inside. I was swimming for an hour or so before I spotted the Italians in there too! It was really surprising. They were mildly annoying in there - at least people around weren't sleeping!

I went for a random stroll again, and found a nice square with tons of restaurants. After living it up with a seafood entree and a duck main (all the stuff I can't afford in England) I went to organise what to do with my bag - turns out that the train station closes at midnight - I eventually left it in a random hotel - took a bit of wheeling and dealing. I didn't really want to be stuck with my bag - especially between 12 and 4am with tons of dodgey homeless people around!

So, the best way I know to kill 4 hours of time is to dance! Well, and to get lost strolling back from the club!!! I walked from the train station at midnight to the centre of town, but couldn't find anywhere that looked open. I knew that Rio would be popular, so I walked down to the Pertofi bridge. I stumbled across Budda, another club, and found the crazy Italians there! I could have avoided them, but figured that clubs are quite good venues for being noisy and crazy! I convinced them to follow me to Rio, which was quite full until I left at 3am, even on a Monday! Made fun of them the whole time too - was quite good fun.

I did manage to get back in time for my airport mini bus - just. A little jogging required and asking of policemen for directions. Was so happy to find the hotel to leave my bag in I forgot to retreive my map before I dumped it!

So today was just a wipeout. After meeting Kevin May and his wife, who run tours for motor racing enthusiasts (www.selectmotorracing.com) I slept all 2 1/2 hours on the plane... don't remember taking off, saw breakfast was placed on the empty table of the chair just next to me but didn't touch it, was never awake when the drinks cart went past... I slept a chunk of the train journey back as well. I lay on my bed when I got back home at around 11am, and slept until 5pm!

At least I was alive to say goodbye to Shannon (who is going to live in Stretham) and to watch I, Robot at the movies with Phil and Lee tonight! Although staying up till 3am to write this and to sort out some photos isn't a good way to fix my body clock!

OK, you're pretty much up to date now. There's a bit of photo posting to be done, but most of that I'll probably delay until after I've caught up with Cousin Shane in the next week.

Look after yourselves. Get some sleep (more than me, that is!).

Posted by Sam at August 18, 2004 03:05 AM