Like I said, Krakow was great. Except I didn't meet any Poles. Only a *mrf* pole.
One of the coolest things about Krakow: licking a salt statue. I know you're probably not supposed to, seeing as they're, whatever, history or something (not to mention probably enough people touch them its not so sanitary, but I'm not dead yet). So fuck it. It's crazy they look like granite or quartz, all sparkly and dark, but it's all salt!





Country 9: Bratislava, Slovakia
Headed down to Slovakia next on the night train. And sure, I'm not that keen on 6 couchette sleeper trains, but given the options, they are the best way to do it (other than 1st class, but who's got the money for that?!). Especially after night buses. But unfortunately I had to switch out at around 6am, so even though it was decent on comfort level, I didn't get that much sleep.
Got to my hostel, probably not the cheapest, but they had (not free as advertised, rather, included in the price of the room) transportation to the hostel. And sometimes the easy option is the one that gets taken, especially as I was too tired to be bothered. Of course, they didn't tell me until after I paid that the room wasn't available until 12. Oh goodie. Aside from that though, it was actually a pretty good hostel: the people were friendly, and really tried to help in every way they could. I even ended up getting a free ride to the airport, even though they usually only transport to the train station.

So, back to the check in: seeing as I didn't have any place to sleep at the moment, I wandered around the town. And it's so tiny! Tinier than anywhere else I think. And maybe it was the tiredness - sleepiness, but also travel weariness- but it was all uninspired and uninteresting. It looked enough like every other city I've been in through Central Europe. So after a bit of a wander, a small nap in a museum bathroom, and the least tastiest lunch I've had this trip, I headed back to my hostel. Had the requisite chat with my roomies, then promptly fell asleep for the next 5 hours.
I woke up in time for dinner at probably the most expensive place in town, which was accompanied by a long chat about glowing frisbees. I neither chose the dining establishment nor the topic of conversation.


But most of Bratislava was spent sleeping and talking to my boyfriend the Internet (because it was free). Somehow, I just couldn't drum up the interest to do anything else there.

So, I left the next day for Munich, and boy, what an adventure I didn't need to have!
As I said, I secured a free ride to the airport, so I started out feeling pretty good about it all... until I got to the counter and they said the flight was overbooked by 5 people. Chances of all 5 people (leaving room for me: standby passanger) on a (maybe) 150 person flight? Slim to nil, definitely.
Options:
1) take a bus to Vienna and try for the 1 o'clock flight. First hoping they would actually take my ticket, since it was supposed to fly from Bratislava. Second hoping to make it to Vienna on time, since it was already 11:15, but it takes an hour (yes, only an hour!!) to get there. I show up fairly late for flights on a routine basis, but a half hour before flight time is pushing it, particularly after 9/11.
2) wait for the flight in Bratislava, and, if I didn't make it, bus over to Vienna for the 5 o'clock.

I went with option 2, hoping against hope, but also with the idea that of the 5 people that were overbooked, even if one showed up, I might throw my lot in with them. And you know what? Every single person except for 1 standby passenger showed up for the flight. So with 4 other (rather pissed off, full paying) passengers, the airline had to taxi them over - and since there was room in the cab, at least (once again) I got a free ride to the Vienna airport.
Luckily they accepted my ticket, and I was able to check in. Phew, cause otherwise I'd have to bus back to Bratislava, spend the night, and try again in the morning. Unfortunately, that left me with 3 hours in Vienna... which is just slimly not enough time to make it worthwhile to go into the city and walk around. So guess what: more waiting!

But I finally got to Munich, met up with Nina, and settled in. Spent a night wandering the streets looking for a cool club, or a cool something to go to, but Sunday nights have never been known for crazy times.
Today, the plan was to go to the park, but it started raining. Guh. So maybe a small wander later, but it's nice enough just hanging out with friends and not doing anything too...