Well I am back from my trip now if you haven't guessed. It's been a busy week with Victoria packing her things. Today was the day she moved in to her new apartment, so she organised some friends, including one with a car, to help move everything. It only took a little over an hour and one carload, so it wasn't too painful. She took those of us who helped out to lunch afterwards. There's still a lot of papers and schoolwork here in the flat, but she's promised to move it out in the next week before my parents arrive so the flat is nice and tidy. It's a little weird having the whole place to myself, and I think it will seem a bit empty when all the loose papers and the like are gone. Already I've discovered a lot of dust hiding all over the place.

Been a bit busy this morning. I saw the state rooms at the castle, which were a disappointment. They were mostly filled with Italian and Belgian paintings - hardly anything was from Poland. The best part was a group of three musicians performing traditional songs in traditional dress. It sounded really good in the castle rooms. The good news was that they honored my student card this time, as most places like the salt mine require you to be under 26 to get a student discount.

Then I went to St Mary's Church, which is in the town square, and climbed its watch tower to see the bugler play the hourly song. It was about 300 steps I think, and a tight little space, though not as tight as a tower I climbed in Split. It's not too bad a climb unless someone is coming the other way.

Finally I went to see the new Batman movie, which was really good I thought. Next it's some supper then a hike to the rental office to get my bag and head to the train station. It's off to Berlin on an 11 hour night train. I should have the compartment to myself though, so will be peaceful.

I went to the Wieliczka salt mine today. It's a massive salt mine which some of the miners made really artistic, with loads of chapels with stone carvings of religious figures, and some other things like the 7 dwarfs. It was the most expensive thing I have done in Krakow, costing about 16 pounds. However, it was worth it as it is a really unique experience. We ended up with a tour guide with a thick accent (sounded a bit like Count Dracula) and a really dry sense of humor. The tour lasted about 2 hours, and included about 500 steps (400 just to get down into the mine).

I also visited Wawel Castle, which is a massive castle overlooking Krakow. I didn't go in the royal apartments (maybe tomorrow), but I did visit the cathedral, which includes a trip to the cathedral museum and up a large bell tower. The neatest thing was at the museum though, and was a ceremonial robe of an archbishop that was covered with what looked like cloth sculptures. There were basically little 3D scenes on the back of the robe showing Jesus's life, just like you often see inside churches. I had never seen one done on the back of a robe though. Most of Poland's kings are buried in the tombs under the cathedral, so I got to see them too but I'm not really familiar with their names.

Last night I went out with another traveller I met from France, named Helene. We went to a bar in the old Jewish district, Kazimierz. I met her in Auschwitz along with another guy named Karl from Singapore. Helene ended up staying on the spare sofa bed in my apartment so she didn't have to pay for another night in her hostel (Karl left yesterday). She went to Wroclaw today, but I may see her again in Berlin, as she lives there and has invited me to stay with her if I want. I may do that on my last night in Berlin, but I don't want to impose too much (plus it is probably a lot more comfortable to sleep on a bed than the floor, even if it is a bunk bed).

Not long left in my trip now. Thankfully the apartment place is keeping my bag tomorrow so I will be free to explore the city tomorrow. I may go see a movie in the afternoon, depending on the weather. They say it could rain tomorrow, but who knows. My night train to Berlin leaves around 8, so I have a lot of time until then.

I am just relaxing, exploring the old Jewish area of Krakow. Tomorrow I may be more adventurous and go to the salt mines. It's supposed to rain sometime either tomorrow or the next day, so I will plan around that. Auschwitz was different than I had pictured it, but quite an emotional experience still.

I've made it safely to Krakow now, after a fairly long train trip of over 7 hours. I was supposed to have 45 minutes to change trains in a place called Katowice in Poland, but the train from Vienna only arrived with 5 minutes to spare. It doesn't help that Katowice doesn't have any TV screens telling you what train departs from what platform. So I ended up running over to the main entrance of the station but not figuring out what platform it was, so I went to the first platform and there was a train leaving at the same time, but it turned out it was the wrong train (a nice Polish lady helped me figure out where to go), and the train was actually departing from the same platform that I had arrived back. A bit more running and I made the train before it left. The Katowice-Krakow train was the slowest I've been on, going about 15-20 mph most of the trip, and stopping frequently. The cities are not that far away, but it took 2 hours by train. At least that was the scheduled trip duration, as all of my other intercity trains or buses have arrived late.

The only annoying thing about Krakow was that the place I am renting a self-catering apartment from originally said they could meet me in the center of town, but recently said that I would have to go to the office to pick up the keys as they are short-staffed on Sundays. Unfortunately their office is about 15 minutes walk outside of the city center, so it was annoying with my backpack. It wasn't too bad in the end, and was through a decent neighborhood. After the long train ride, it was good to stretch my legs anyway. I originally requested a studio apartment, but they upgraded me for free to a 1 bedroom place. I even have a pull out sofabed, which doesn't help much since it is just me there. I'm gonna tell one of the guys I met in Vienna about it so he can come if he wants, as he is in Poland too, though visiting his family. I was slightly worried about security in Poland as I've heard some stories, but it seems just like everywhere else I've gone so far, so I am not worried. There are lots of policemen who drive around the tourist areas on golf carts, but I am not sure how effective those really are.

Krakow city center has a massive square, that just goes on forever. It's filled with cafes and restaurants (and many, many other tourists). It's very neat but also a bit too much. Some of the side streets seem to be a bit more favored by the locals. I had borscht soup and pierogis (little dumplings) and rice this evening. It cost about 5 pounds, which isn't dirt cheap, but seemed quite reasonable, especially as it included a glass of wine.

Yesterday I went to Schronbrunner Schloss (maybe the name is a little different) - and I explored the gardens. There is a massive zoo in it, with a baby panda. I felt sorry for the three pandas though as they were cooped up inside, despite it being nice cool weather, perfect for pandas. Most of the animals were outside, including the five polar bears, who were eating apples (a natural food for polar bears?) and playing with a ball. I got a bit annoyed at all the people though as there were tons of people and they just ignored the signs saying not to take flash photos nor bang on the windows. Luckily it started pouring it down for about 10 minutes every 20 minutes or so, which meant everyone ran away and I was able to see some of the exhibits in peace (I had an umbrella). Though when the rain stopped, everyone came out again of course. I also went to the maze and labyrinth area of the gardens, which was pretty good. The only thing I would've liked more was a bit better weather as it was cool and windy, a bit too much so for what I was wearing.

In the afternoon I was going to see a movie at the theater with an Australian guy I met, Will. However, the movie choice was pretty bad (we wanted to see the new Batman one but it doesn't come out for another two weeks in Austria apparently, though it is in Slovenia), so we just had ice cream sundaes and then went back to the hostel. At night two English women (Ali and Haley) in our room came back from their trip to Salzburg, which was a long day trip at 2.5 hours on the train, and we all hung out at the hostel bar until after it closed. It did mean I only ended up with about 5 hours of sleep last night, so I'm pretty tired.

I don't think I'll be exploring too much more of Krakow tonight given it's gotten pretty dark, so I think it's back to the flat to watch Olympic highlights then bed time. Tomorrow I am either going to Auschwitz or to explore the castle and rest of Krakow. It may be good to get Auschwitz/Birkenau over with early, given it's likely to be quite somber. The other thing I want to do one day is go to Wieliczka salt mine, a giant salt mine where the miners carved out statues and a cathedral. I've seen pictures of it on a travel documentary and it looks really neat. I think it is an UNESCO heritage site too.

I got bored of Vienna and headed to Bratislava, which was smaller, cuter, and more manageable. Went with a Canadian named Zach I met and we had a good time. Hard to type on this keyboard though. Tomorrow off to Vienna zoo to visit a panda and maybe see a movie in the afternoon.

For my last day in Ljubljana, Slovenia I was extremely busy. I went to a massive underground cave this morning called Postojna. You take a train into the inside of the cave for about 8 minutes then you walk around for an hour with a tour guide (who doesn't talk that much actually). It was very impressive, about 3km inside the earth, though only 120 meters underground. There were tons of stalagtites and stalagmites to be seen everywhere. I got the bus back to Ljubljana and met a Korean couple who were headed to Croatia to the places I just came from, so I told them some tips about the areas.

Once I got back to town I was unsure if I should take another hour-long bus ride to Bled, a lake town in the middle of the mountains. So I said if the 1:00 bus was still there (they were hourly on the hour) I would take it or if not I would probably just stay in Ljubljana. As it turns out the bus from the caves arrived early and I just made the Bled bus by 3 minutes. On the bus I met Andy, Josh, and Tracy, three New Zealanders travelling around Europe for two months. They were spending the night in Bled, but invited me to hang out with them. So we rented a rowboat in Bled and rowed out to a church on an island in the middle of the lake. It was lovely there and we went swimming in the water, which was about 24 degrees. It was really clear water - you could see fish swimming in it from far away. Some of the fish were a foot and half long, and impressive to watch. Anyway, they were really nice to me and invited me to continue travelling with them, but I have already purchased many of my train tickets to save money, so that wasn't really possible. I may see them again sometime though as I think we are going to some of the same places at similar times. I didn't get back to Ljubljana until 10:00 at night, but it was worth it as I had a blast today.