Day 51: Krakow => Prague

6:53am train. With me limping along, we make it just in time, six minutes before the train departs. It's a seven-hour ride to Prague (Praha). Random note: The laundry actually dried from midday yesterday to early this morning. (The hostel only had a washer, no dryer.) So despite the rain, it is still quite dry in Krakow. Or maybe it was because they kept the fan going in the bathroom (where the laundry hanging thing was)?

I eat my fruit pierogis on the train. K had heated them up for me before we left. The first one tasted pretty good, but I think I agree with K about fruit and pierogis not being the best combo. I didn't like the cheesy sauce they put on them either. It was 'ok'. I'd like to eventually re-visit Poland. There's more food I'd like to eat ^-^ But also, I liked Krakow. And, it's one of the cheaper cities in Europe (it gets cheaper as you move east ^-^).

Prague. The train station has the clearest English announcements we've heard anywhere! Aside from the ultra-clear announcements, we were also surprisingly greeted by slot machines and by ads playing X-Files and Inspector Gadget theme songs.

We're staying at a little family-owned guesthouse a few metro stops out of the Old Town. It's residential area, right in the midst of Czech suburban/city sprawl. It's nice to get the contrast between where Czechs actually live and the touristy center.

Since the day's already gone, we don't really do much, except explore the surrounding area's mini groceries and go to a nearby restaurant recommended by our host. K gets a salmon, and me, traditional Czech fare... smoked pork, cabbage, potato dumplings, and bread dumplings. RS comments on Czech food as being "heavy, hearty, and tasty" with "lots of meat, potatoes, and cabbage". You could pretty much say that for traditional Irish or German food! I liked the dish I ordered; the potato dumplings were tastier than the potato dumplings in Munich, and the bread 'dumplings' were especially good. I think it was a steamed yeast bread of some sort. RS also comments that "most Czechs no longer go to 'traditional' eateries, preferring the cosmopolitan taste of the world to the mundane flavor of sauerkraut". But isn't "comfort" food whatever you've grown up with? His latter comment was true for the place we went to; more than half the selections were not traditional 'Czech'.