more Krakow

more time in cracow..

back at the ranch..

after 2 fun filled days shopping and sightseeing it was back to warsaw, then back to lapy, then to bialystok, then back to warsaw...why we wanted to torture ourselves - i dont know..but in between all of this was many birthday celebrations!

Cracovia...and birthday shots

july 5. 6 am we take the 4 and a half hour train to Krakow..which actually ends up being more like 8 hours..how you know where your stop is, is unbeknownst to me since there are absolutely no announcements and the train men in their funny hats are not very informative. but we made it to krakow, where Pawel's friend picked us up and directed us to our hostel. We planned to stay only one night and make our way to Zagoponack the following day...

first we went to the famous Royal Castle in Krakow, where I was told some bs story about how a dragon once lived here in breathed fire...and then he preceded to step on my flip flop and break it, so I had no shoe for my adventures in Cracovia. We piggy-backed back down Wawel Hill...and thankfully found the birthday girl some new shoes and then we went out for birthday shots..yayy

...to lapy we go...

we left our privelaged life in warsaw for an atm-less city roaming with cows...and swarming with an abundance of flies..

and let me just tell you, getting out was not easy. traveling and not speaking polish in poland do not go well together. somehow we made it to the correct train station with the correct tickets...
after a screaming match with the crabby bathroom attendant..apparantly you have to pay to pee..listen lady its not my fault you're stuck in a bathroom all day..she would not give me my 2 złotych in change..

may i also add that the trains in poland are certainly no LIRR...nope not at all. Here in NY, they're always saying watch the gap, which is literally only like 3 inches, just enough for your shoe to fall in...nope not here. its like a 3 foot drop from the platform to the trains steps..but still there are no announcements forewarnings you and preparing you to step into "the gap"

so we arrived in łapy greeted by rob's cousins and his dziedzik, flowers for me, and plates of golabki, masses of zurek, rye bread and all the kielbasa one can eat (not to mention all the strange meats covered in fat which i steered far far away from.) The next day we went to lubecze to visit all of robs' aunts, uncles and cousins where they forced us to drink shot after shot of vodka with all sorts of polish cakes, cookies, meats, pickles and bread..

then the planning for our trip to krakow began..

american girl in poland

one day in amsterdam

So we woke up this morning and took an a.m. train to Amsterdam, Nederlands...only about 2 hours from Antwerp. We were greeted by thousands and thousands of bikes, amongst canal after canal throughout the city. It proved to be a bit difficult to find a place to eat but we were surrounded by coffee shops and prostitutes, too bad we wanted food..

day 3 - Halo American Couple!

of course we woke up not feeling 100% this morning...actually afternoon, after a very long night out and a long and confusing taxi ride home...

We woke up to gloomy skies, which explains sleeping until almost 2pm! We grabbed breakfast at a waffle house, hence the most delicious Belgian waffle I've ever had..it rained for the most part today and was cold and dreary. we made it to the Rubens House Museum where Peter Paul Rubens lived in the mid-16th century..then went for Shwarma in the Grote Market, I feel like this vacation is just one long drinking fest..
Our friend from Buffalo, Nate and his girlfriend invited us to check out the fireworks on the West Bank over looking the Scheldt River with their friends from university. Since it was Nate's last night in Antwerp, we grabbed a drink at the pub and said our goodbyes :( we ended the night with french fries and mayonaise (dont ask, its a belgian thing..)