prague and overnight trains

hi all for day 5/6 of the trip.
day 5, the overnighter;
after the carnage of poland we set about the task of a 12 hour overnight train to the czech republic capital of prague.
we were challenged to football by the local lads that drunk us under the table at rockus club in zakopane, and after a poor performance we managed to retain the national pride with a 6-5 victory in extra time, and set off with our gear feeling rather unwell to the station.
the first travel nightmare was zakopane station as not a single person even hinted at understanding anglais and my polish is restricted to 3 pints of lager and a coca cola please :D
luckily we found a bilingual holiday maker from chicago who did the deed and helped us out, we were booked into an eight seater compartment with no lock on the door and two rather haggard looking locals (smoking like chimneys) after several interruptions and some train maintenance we were alone but unable to sleep due to constant interruptions for ticket checks and passports.
arrival in prague saw us getting done by a cowboy taxi driver and having to walk for 30mins to find the hostel, which seemingly didn't exist to the locals.
after a sleepless night and long walk with heavy gear, spirits were low.
but after a power nap and a wander we set about having some food and drinks in a nice restaurant in the main square.
it has to be said, prague is absolutely beautiful and must be seen at night to get the full effect.
spent the rest of the night in a gorgeous little underground blues bar supping gin and listening to some serious fretwanking from an american blues band and then got a reasonably early night.
went on a walking tour of the city this morning and now feet are really hurting!
gorgeous place though, will deffo want to come back for more.
another overnight sleeper train tonight to budapest (hopefully seeing radiohead tomoro night) hopefully we'll be ok as we've got sleeper compartments!
might struggle to post for a few days as we're hopefully going to this music festival, but more soon..

we came, we saw, we conquered

last day of poland today, unfortunately weather time and funds were against the paragliding action so that will have to wait for another time.
what started out as a quiet few last night turned into a hardcore drinking session after meeting a couple of the locals :-)
we got introduced to the wonders of a shot called

mad dog

which has vodka tobasco and rasberry juice all in one.
ken set the pull score to 1,0,0,0 which is most disheartening for the rest of us!
the dancefloor took another beating from the brits, the four man ymca sequence left a few jaws dropped :-D
white water rafting was an absolute blast in the afternoon, though it was a little tame the scenery was absolutely gorgeous, not to mention the 2 girls we met up with for the rafting. unfortunately had to part ways though a promise of a meet-up in budapest sounds heartening.
before we head out to prague we've got another poland v england match if the locals can remember arranging it in the carnage that was last night :-D
having an absolutely brilliant time, poland has been awesome.
people have been excellent and the scenery nothing short of amazing, polish women have really shown up even the likes of leeds!
onto czech republic after a nasty 12hour overnighter...
more soon..
(you can leave us comments by clicking under each post)

day3-the mountains

first train journey over and done with, after some minor confusion with the non-english speaking conductor we arrived in zakopane.
again after some minor confusion and little help from a map we tracked down the hostel and set up base camp.
bumped into two very lovely ladies who needed a few more numbers for the white water rafting trip and now we're off to bomb it down the side of a mountain in a 3 foot by six foot inflated rubber dinghy :-)
decided to hit the town last night, and hit it we did.
the locals didnt even see it coming.
the vast array of shapes we pulled and breakdance manuevres just blew them away :-)
was a truly awesome night after the girls sabotaged the no-mixing-drinks-policy and we claimed the dancefloor for queen and country.
the mood in base camp is distinctly hung over but now we've gotta make a move and go rafting!
hopefully going to jump off a mountain with naught but a glider attached to me tomoro.
more later...

day 2

well we woke up early to the sound of my phone alarm going off, telling us to get up and get our arses to oswieschim (auschwitz)
after a trek to the train station we realised we'd got some dodgy intel and the train wouldnt be coming for another hour, though a rather plump fellow convinced us we wanted to get a taxi with him for 70pln (about 15) and he would wait and bring us back, hell yes we though.
until we saw his driving!
jesus christ, we were overtaking people who were overtaking other people!
oh well we got there and back in one piece and the driver was sorted, being our own guide for parts of the tour, he drove us to birkenau (the biggest part of the death factory complex) and gave us a tour.
the place itself is extremely moving, it shows the resilience and strength of the human psyche but also the pure evil we are capable of.
the most notable thing about the place is the silence, there is no birdsong, just the wind in the trees. its very eeirie.
well its our last night in krakow, going out in the town centre in the beautiful square, then heading to zakopane tomoro for some mountain sports :D
unfortunatley we have no digicam with us and i cant send mms off my phone so it'll be a pictureless blog, but if your really arsed im sure you can google image search birkenau and krakow for an idea.
have fun, more posts soon!

in the beginning!

hi all, tis our first day in krakow, and we're all knackered after travelling through the night down to stansted. after travelling through the night we arrived in krakov and had an extremely trendy tweed jacketed taxi driver. we ditched the gear and headed round tha kazimierz (thr jewish quarter) for a scout around, though it seems the locals can smell a tourist a mile away as they instantly tried to charge us 60quid for two bottles of water :-) think it was propbably my fault for trying to pay with dollars though!
spent the most part of the day walking round 'exploring' and getting rather lost, though we have seen wawel castle, the river vistula and most of the old town.
i have to say this is one of the most beautiful citys i've been to, and the main square is simply stunning!
went out for a few beers tonight and found some gorgeous bars and clubs which i've only just got in from so will post again after a decent nights sleep.
onto auschwitz tomoro!
cj