Getting There

I did it my friends, I survived my first little trip. I've felt a wide range of emotions these last 3 days, even if some were just for a fleeting moment- apprehension, exhaustion, exasperation, confusion, elation, awe.... It was an incredible three days that started off interesting from the very beginning. 

Tuesday morning I walked down to the local train station to start my journey to Krakow, Poland. It was my first time taking the train, and the little station was not what I expected. I could not for the life of me find an information desk, ticket desk or anything to provide details or a place to buy a ticket. The station was old, run down, and empty. Not a single person working there or waiting for the train. Since I couldn't find a place to buy a ticket I figured the text messages I use for the metro and buses must work for the local train too. Turns out that was not a correct assumption. 

The ticket man came around after I boarded the train and I pulled out my phone, and all he said was 'Ne, ne, ne' (No, no, no). At this point I was kind of freaking out a little bit inside, in my travel books they have all said that if you don't have a valid ticket you will get charged a hefty fine payable on the spot- but only if they check tickets which they supposedly rarely do. I was a little nervous and the guy didn't speak any English, so my trying to explain that there was no place to buy a ticket was not helpful. Luckily we were able to communicate to each other where I was trying to go, and he started typing away on his little machine, all the while everybody on the train is staring and I am just waiting to have to bust out my wallet to pay the fine. Maybe my books were wrong or he felt bad for me, I don't know, but he just printed me out a ticket and had me pay him the 20 kc for it. After he left the girl next to me told me that she finds the whole ticketing thing confusing and shes Czech. So that made me feel better.

That train took me to the main train station in Prague where I had to buy my international ticket. I figured out what platform to go to, and started the supposedly 8 1/2 hour trip to Krakow. The only direct trains from Prague to Krakow are the night trains, so I had 3 different stops where I needed to change trains. Well that just didn't happen. My first train ride was only about 2 1/2 hours, but for some reason it decided to stop on the tracks in the middle of nowhere for awhile and just hangout. When we got to the station I wasn't sure where to go to find the board with departures, so I asked the first person I saw who turned out to be super nice. She told me she didn't speak much English, but she seemed to understand me very well. She told me to come with her and took me to the board. She could have just left me there at the board but she noticed my destination wasn't listed so she told me to follow her and she went over to information to find out where I needed to go. Her English was limited but she told me she found out that my train had already left (just as the one I was on had pulled in) and that the next one came in 1 19. I was like oh an hour and 19 minutes? and she said yes, I'm sorry and we parted ways.

 I sat on a bench near the departure board and read while I waited for my destination to show up. After awhile I noticed some departures show up that were scheduled to depart after my train should be leaving. I started to get concerned and went to information and tried to figure out what time the train would be leaving.  Turns out when the girl had said 1 19 she meant the next train going to that destination was coming at 1:19 am! Mind you its about 3:30 in the afternoon at this point. I asked for Krakow then, hoping maybe I could just take a different route there, and luckily there was one earlier but not till 10:45 pm. I took the slips of papers with the times on them and sat down staring at them not knowing what to do. Would I have to buy a new ticket or would I be able to exchange mine? If I have to buy a new one, is it worth going or should I just turn back around and go home? I had only brought a limited amount of cash (and my credit card is not working) and I was worried I would spend all my money just getting there and not be able to do anything when I got there. I couldn't ask the lady about exchanging, as she didn't speak English and I was afraid that even if exchanging was possible that it might be lost in translation and I might end up paying for a ticket anyway. After a few tries I found someone that spoke English and he told me that I should be be able to just get on the train that night with the ticket I had, no problem. I had no way to verify if what he thought was true or not but I decided to take his word for it, a little nervous that if he was wrong I might get thrown off the bus in the middle of nowhere or have to pay  a fine but figured hey I may as well just go with it. 

So after hanging out at the train station for hours on end reading, people watching, getting propositioned by 12 year old boys (yikes!) and making great discoveries (they had dr. pepper in the store!!) I finally got on my train, only to ride it for 20 minutes, get off at another station and wait until a little after midnight to board my final train. While I was inside the station waiting, just looking around I made eye contact with a middle aged man by the vending machines. He held up a bottled war and pointed at me, I just shook my head no and smiled and he kept pointing at the water and me and I just kept smiling and shaking my head. I eventually just turned away because he obviously was not getting it. Five minutes later he walks over to me, I was like halfway across the station from the vending machines, and hands me a bottled water and walks away. I must have looked thirsty cause another five minutes pass and he is by my side handing me a cup and all he says is 'cocoa' and then points at himself and says 'slovakian' and then walks away. So I am sitting there with a bottled water in one hand and a cup of cocoa in the other, thinking this is weird but very nice of him and then I start thinking what if he put something in the drink... he's just standing in the corner watching me... I decided to go wait on the platform since my train was supposed to show up in like 20 minutes, and told the guy thanks again when I walked by. Then like 10 minutes later who do you think shows up at the platform, Mr. hot cocoa himself. When the train showed up he started getting on and nodded toward the train car and I smiled and just kept walking. After I was in a cabin with a couple other people I drank the cocoa and I did not die, so no worries.

I lucked out on the train, and for about 3 hours it was just me and one other girl in the compartment so I was able to lay down and sleep for a few hours. I ended up getting to Krakow at 7 am on Wednesday, 20 hours after I had left the house on Tuesday morning. Heres a sneak peek at some of the awesomeness of Krakow. Details later, for now I need to pack for Italy.