Friday 10 June 2005 - Prague to Krakow
After breakfast we caught a cab to the train station. Our train was at 11.00am but we were unsure of what time to arrive so we got to the station just after 9am. It turned out that we could have just turned up and jumped on so we sat around the station playing cards until the train arrived.
As we had no reservation the first seats we sat in were allocated to two others, but we moved to other seats in the compartment and then we were okay. The train headed east through the Czech Republic, making frequent stops to take on passengers. The countryside is mainly given over to crops and we only saw one pasture with cattle grazing.
Shortly after 3pm we arrived at the border with Poland at a town called Ostrava. The Czech Police came through and looked at our passports but no Polish official checked. By this stage the train was almost empty and we struck up a conversation with a girl called Natasha who was going to Katowice. This was handy as we needed to change trains there.
Once we got to Katowice we caught a service to Krakow. The train was vintage with hard plastic seats. It was very unstable, just like the red-rattlers in Wellington. The Polish countryside was not as picturesque as the Czech countryside, but we did pass through many industrial towns rather than rural areas, so it could be an unfair comparison.
On arrival in Krakow the station was very run down. There is a large construction site next to the station and the rain had turned the whole thing into mud. I had hardly gotten off the platform before a very pushy tout tried to offer accomodation. We walked around for a half hour until we found a taxi (with our heavy bags) before getting to our hotel over the river. The taxi was cheap, about NZ$5 for the 2km but we were very tired of looking for the taxi stand
As it was quite late we had dinner at the hotel and then went to bed. Due to a mistake with the reservation we had been put into a single room, so we were change to a twin room. Thankfully it is the disabled unit so is on the ground floor so no need to lug the suitcases up and down stairs.
Tomorrow we will go to the Krakow castle and main square, which is the largest market in Europe. On Sunday we will go on a tour to the Concentration and death camps at Oscweim (better known in it's German name of Auschwitz).
As we had no reservation the first seats we sat in were allocated to two others, but we moved to other seats in the compartment and then we were okay. The train headed east through the Czech Republic, making frequent stops to take on passengers. The countryside is mainly given over to crops and we only saw one pasture with cattle grazing.
Shortly after 3pm we arrived at the border with Poland at a town called Ostrava. The Czech Police came through and looked at our passports but no Polish official checked. By this stage the train was almost empty and we struck up a conversation with a girl called Natasha who was going to Katowice. This was handy as we needed to change trains there.
Once we got to Katowice we caught a service to Krakow. The train was vintage with hard plastic seats. It was very unstable, just like the red-rattlers in Wellington. The Polish countryside was not as picturesque as the Czech countryside, but we did pass through many industrial towns rather than rural areas, so it could be an unfair comparison.
On arrival in Krakow the station was very run down. There is a large construction site next to the station and the rain had turned the whole thing into mud. I had hardly gotten off the platform before a very pushy tout tried to offer accomodation. We walked around for a half hour until we found a taxi (with our heavy bags) before getting to our hotel over the river. The taxi was cheap, about NZ$5 for the 2km but we were very tired of looking for the taxi stand
As it was quite late we had dinner at the hotel and then went to bed. Due to a mistake with the reservation we had been put into a single room, so we were change to a twin room. Thankfully it is the disabled unit so is on the ground floor so no need to lug the suitcases up and down stairs.
Tomorrow we will go to the Krakow castle and main square, which is the largest market in Europe. On Sunday we will go on a tour to the Concentration and death camps at Oscweim (better known in it's German name of Auschwitz).
posted by Michael at
9:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home