So we've now spent seven days in Krakow. We found an awesome hostel with a really relaxed atmosphere and incredibly helpful staff, so we stuck around.
The visa dash to Warsaw was successful, with the visa being done within four hours. €30 for a visa to a place I'm not even visiting, just passing through on a train, is a bit annoying though.
We're off on our huge train ride tonight, heading to Varna in Bulgaria. 35 hours should be interesting. We've got a private sleeper compartment, so that should be nice. Charging up our mp3 players and we've laid in supplies of food, snacks, vodka and books.
Poland has been loads of fun. The people are very friendly and it's pretty easy going. We've got some photos up including our trip to Auschwitz.
We've had some interesting food experiences here. There's the Polish classics which are always good: pierogi, borscht and their tasty sausages. We also discovered a new thing for us, zapekanka, which are kind of glorified cheese on toast. They're incredibly cheap and available everywhere, taking much the same place as kebabs in the snack food field.
Last Sunday we noticed a queue of about 100 people outside an ice cream shop, and noted the location for a later visit. For 1.20 Zloty (30c in Euro) you get three scoops of luscious handmade ice cream. Definitely worth queuing!
This hostel has had some really friendly, interesting people staying. A really different crowd from the rich trust-fund American college kids you get in Italy and Spain. It's been loads of fun just hanging around the hostel, chatting and meeting people from around the world. Hopefully the hostel in Varna will have a similar style. It gets great reviews on Hostelworld, so here's hoping!