This time I brought the camera
Today I woke up very early and went for my first post-marathon run. It's really cool to run through a city or town before the vast majority of its residents are up and about. I decided to revisit Wawel Castle and the Old Town area. While I didn't find the Chakra, I did find the restaurant my girlfriend recommend I go to find my favorite breaded pork cutlet. We will hit this place for lunch after we return from the Wieliczka Salt Mines. After lunch, we'll probably just chill out and walk around the Old Town grid or come back to our fancy room and take turns in the fancy whirlpool. Brian isn't a big partier but maybe I can convince him to hit the town and see why my Polish friends thought we were crazy for not staying longer in Krakow.
We arrived in Krakow yesterday morning and it was a bit of an adventure getting to our hotel. As part of the expensive hotel package Brian and I agreed to purchase from Kirker Travel Agency, private transportation from hotels to train stations and airports are included. However, this means using locals in each city and sometimes that can mean working with unreliable, flaky individuals.
In Prague our driver was at the baggage claim area with a sign with our name on it and we assumed a similar situation here. Instead, our driver was no where to be found. We dragged our suitcases from one end of the station to the other, checking where the buses arrive, and all the parking lots and taxi stations. After a call to the agency, we finally tracked him down and he returned to the station.
Our driver claimed he was waiting for us at platform three. The only problem is we arrived on platform five! And every board in that train station said as much. Yet he still insisted that we should have arrived on platform three. So we lost 90 minutes of our vacation time that we will never get back looking for a driver who probably was never there in the first place or was at the wrong platform and gave up too quickly.
I will say this about Krakow. I like it much better than Prague. It's less pretensious, money goes further and they don't seem to hold Americans in contempt. And Wawel Castle can hold its own against Prague Castle any day.
