Europe 06

It's cloudy and cool today in Krakow but I'm getting ready to start the tour of the old town square.

Tragedy has struck this trip. It's worse than losing my wallet or passport. I placed my Rick Steve's book down somewhere and lost it! I have a back up in Foder's, but it's still not Rick Steves. Oh well!

The train ride was uneventful. Next time I'll skip the sleeper. I was woke up 3 times by border security checking my passport. Not worth the extra money. I'll just go first class next time and skip the sleeper. I didn't have a blanket either and it was kind of cold.

I spent the afternoon yesterday drinking beers in the Arab quarter of the Budapest train station. Arabs from Morocco, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, etc. all breaking fast for Ramadan in the evening. I met Unis first and he introduced me to everyone else. Only Unis was drinking. The others were drinking Turkish coffee. Unis shared his fish with me. In Arab culture that means he would never hurt me. It would amaze many at home how none of the Arabs I met hated Americans. They hated George Bush, but he's not really an American anyway. They made me feel very comfortable.

Good news today. I went to make travel plans from Krakow to Zagreb and by a stroke of luck we found it was cheaper to buy roundtrip airfare so for $380 I got a flight to Zagreb and then back to Krakow, but it goes through Budapest on the 11th. That just happens to be the day I need to be in Budapest so I'll just skip the second half of the flight and stay there.

I will go to Zagreb Monday evening and kick around there for a couple of days before going to Split and Dubrovnik.

Now I'm off to see Krakow. I'm the only one in shorts, so I'm getting some looks.

Also, I've been keeping up on the Cardinals and I truley hope they lose so ownership might shake things up a bit, including LaRussa. This team has no shot at the Series so what good is a playoff appearance? None to me. I won't let them break my heart this time.