Krakow Bound!

So, as you might have been able to tell from my last post, I have officially left the USAC group and am on my way to Poland, solo!

I woke up this morning in Hungary, I visited Slovakia with USAC, and tonight I will go to bed in Poland-- three countries in one day, absolutely crazy! I had to leave a little early from the field study to make my seven and a half hour train ride to Krakow, so I only was in Bratislava for about three hours. I had heard it is kind of a homely place, and maybe I had pictured it too extremely, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was definitely really distracted though. The bus dropped us off at the castle and then we walked around town and got lunch, after which I needed to leave. Because I wouldn't be back on the bus though, I had to carry all of my luggae around town with me. Up at the castle, I realized that I had forgotten to write down the tram stop I needed to get off of to get to my hostel from the train station. For a solid ten minutes I was freaking out on the inside about maybe not finding wifi to look it up, and then maybe having to call my mom collect (assuming I could find a pay phone) to have her look it up for me, and that was assuming she was somewhere with Internet and not traveling around . . . Eventually it dawned on me that there would be wifi at the train stations, almost definitely, and that even if there wasn't, I had the address and someone would be able to tell me which stop to get off once I got to Krakow (although, I really didn't want to depend on finding out at the last minute, late at night, based on a strangers words). I realized that it wasnt so hopeless and was fine, but still had just some general travel nerves . . . Ultimately, I've technically been to Slovakia, but was so distracted that having gone there really doesn't mean anything.

We made it to the restaurant for lunch, but for the people I sat with it was just really kind of depressing because we knew that I had to leave as soon as I was done eating. Jan, our director, had called a taxi that would be there in a few minutes, so I stood up and hugged Karen and Katherine. I swear, when Katherine and I hugged, the room got so quiet! Everyone had their eyes on us and then a whole bunch of other people stood up for their goodbyes. There are some people that I would really hope to see again, but until I was in the taxi, it didn't really hit me that so many of those people I will never see again. Even for the people I wasn't close to, it was really sad. I had lived and done everything with all of those people for over a month, and now we are down to nothing. I will be back to Prague on Saturday to pick up my bag at Aly's (she's staying for second session and let me store my big luggage there, thank you Aly!) and to get some breakfast with her before I leave Europe. So I still have this little slice of time left in Prague that may not involve everyone, but will definitely prolong the reality of all these goodbyes.

I made it to the train station in plenty of time. It took me a minute to figure out where to go, but I eventually found my train listed up on the departures board. Right away, I was back in fear out mode . . . My train had a ten minute delay and I only would have ten minutes between that train and catching my next one. I was a little frantic in my head once again, but decided that it was what it was and there was nothing I could really do about it. I'm pretty sure that my train into Krakow is the last that arrives tonight, so I was just so worried about getting stuck in some middle of nowhere town in who knows what country, and needing to find somewhere to stay the night with no way to get there and no means of communication. The only good thing that came out of it is that I got on the wifi and found the tram stop I need for my hostel. I also sent my mom a fanatic email about my current situation. At this point in my journey I haven't been on wifi since, so she may be slightly freaking out for me right now . . .

I got on my first train when it finally arrived to Bratislava, and had an hour until I was supposed to switch trains. I listened to music and finished editing the last few posts on here about the field study, but the whole time I was just thinking about the next train that there was no way I was going to make. When we are to the stop it was clear that the other girl in my compartment was on at least my next train, so we kind of buddied up. My ticket said the track number of the next train, so luckily we had that to work with. We had arrived about 10 minutes after my other train was supposed to leave, so in my mind I was preparing for needing to find another train to get there. We got off and the train was still stopped in the track though! This huge group of people, clearly on the same train as us, all ran for it. We had to go down a set of stairs, down a hallway and up another set of stairs. We made it though! The whole things was just horrible, it was just so much un-needed stress . . . The girl with me is from Portugal and was studying abroad in Bratislava, but she is also going to Krakow so it's kind of nice having someone else throughout the journey in the same boat.

So now, here I am, two hours into my second train ride with two hours left. I'm officially caught up on my blogs and am probably just going to read and relax the rest of the trip! I get to Krakow at about 9:30 tonight, hopefully with no more trouble. Tomorrow will be a long day. My hostel has already helped me to book some tours, so I will be up early to go to the salt mines and then Auschwitz-Birkenau. It would be a long day with any type of tours I'd do, but it will also definitely be extremely emotionally draining. I'm not quite sure what to expect, but I'm sure I will have lots more to share afterwards. I'm not possitive what is on the agenda for Friday, but it will definitely involve some touring around Krakow itself. My flight to Cape Town is Saturday afternoon, so I have an overnight train back on Friday night. Unfortunately, my time in Poand will be brief, but I feel content with the few things that I do have planned.

More updates to come!