Where to begin?

Whew...it's been a couple days since I've been able to sit down at a computer. Where to begin? Well, for starters I should let you know that I'm safe and sound here in Budapest with Chris and Antonia.

But I'll start back in Kracow. It was so difficult for me to leave Kracow, I seriously felt at home in that amazing city. But, there were more adventures to be had, so I had to move on. Some impressions of Kracow though:

-religion. Polish people are definitely religious. I have never seen so many nuns in my life, young and old. And in the full nun gear, a la Sound of Music. I don't think I've ever actually seen a nun in a full habit before I got to Poland. I'm pretty sure the nuns in Canada just wear regular clothes. And there were tons of young nuns too, and I was under the impression that they're only getting like 5 new nuns a year in Canada, which isn't even enough to help take care of the old nuns. And the problem going on in most of the world where they can't get young priests to sign up and take over from the old ones? Also doesn't appear to be a problem in Poland. TONS of young priests.

-friendly. Kracow natives are definitely the friendliest I've met. From helping me deal with the metro police to giving directions to just smiling at me on the street, these people are genuinely helpful and wonderful. Makes me wonder if there's a connection to point #1.

- elderly. Huge proportion of older people in Poland. Don't know why, but especially in the outskirts, most people seemed to be over 60

- clean. Maybe also related to point #1 (cleanliness is next to godliness?) but I think every person in Kracow washes their windows every day. I don't think I've EVER washed my windows. Perhaps not the thing to be admitting on a public forum.

So yes, that was Kracow. I will most defintely be back there, and hopefully soon!

I left Kracow on Saturday at around 9 am for Zakopane, where I was to transfer to a bus bound for Poprad. The ride to Zakopane went without a hitch, and I was seated next to a lovely Polish man who had just returned to Poland with his family after living in England for the last 15 years. He'd left during the communist times. So he had some interesting insights into the history of Poland, and some fascinating thoughts on Poland's involvement in the current conflict in Iraq, which most Poles appear to be ashamed to be involved with.

The fun started when I reached Zakopane and tried to get the bus to Poprad. There is only 2 buses every day, one at 7 am and one at 2 pm. I was planning on getting the one at 2 pm, but the tickets were all sold out. I went and tried to plead with the driver (I was willing to stand up) but he didn't speak a word of English, and the polish people seemed to be having no better luck.

I got the low down from a polish girl who spoke quite good english. Apparently, the only way to get across the border was to take a minibus to the border, walk across, and take another bus on the other side. I asked if she would mind if I tagged along with her and her boyfriend, which she was very nice about. So, we crammed onto this teeny bus, got out at the border, walked across a bridge, and voila, we were in Slovakia. Veronika and Simon jumped on a bus (they weren't going to Poprad) and I was on my own again, sitting on a bench at the border, hoping I was waiting in the right place to get to Poprad.

I shouldn't have worried, because I soon met another friend, Monika, another lovely Polish girl who spoke some English. She helped me find the way to Poprad (we ended up taking a private taxi bus thing, but it was still only about $3 for a 1.5 hour ride!) and get me in a taxi to Peter's parents place.

Although I was extremely nervous about staying with Peter's parents, I needn't have worried. They were incredibly welcoming, and I soon felt right at home. Peter's sister Lucy, who speaks some English, was there when I arrived, and introduced me to Esther and Domenic, her two children. Domenic was only about a month old, and was of course incredibly cute and baby-like and sweet. Esther was the one who really won me over though. She was about a year and half old, and not the least bit shy about coming up and giving me a big kiss and hug. She even knew my name! And when here mom said (in Slovak), Laura is from Canada, who else is from Canada? she said "Peter!" SO cute. She chattered away to me in Slovak the whole time, and didn't seem to mind that I didn't understand her. Only one word mattered. HOMBA! (not sure if I'm spelling it right). It means "PUSH!" and she always wanted me to push her on the swing, and wouldn't let anyone else do it. I'm seriously in love with that kid.

The rest of Peter's family was also amazing. Neither of his parents speak any english, but his mother speaks some German, so we managed to communicate quite well that way. They had a huge meal waiting for me when I arrived at around 5 pm, and after eating I was ready for a nap. So I went upstairs, crashed, and woke up 2 hours later all covered in blankets. Peter's mom had come and covered me up! After 2 weeks of sleeping in dorms and showering in flip flops, I was truly touched.

I got up and went downstairs, and his parents were waiting with tea and photo albums. Yes Peter, I saw every baby picture ever taken of you. And that's not the worst of it...then they brought out the home movies! I particularly enjoyed the footage of you cavorting around Greece in your speedo. :)

The next morning I got up bright and early (believe it or not, I woke up to a rooster crowing. Does it get more perfect?) to go to the 8 am mass with Peter's mom. No, you don't have to read that line again, you read correctly. I went to Slovakian church with his mom! I think this might be serious... :)

The church was only a block away from the house (which I forgot to mention was absoultely a beautiful house and I had a view of the mountains from my room) and was 700 years old. The church was absolutely packed (strange for a North American to see that) so we stood in the balcony for the service. It was quite nice, although of course I couldn't understand a word of it. Then, Peter's mom pulled some strings and got us a trip up the clock tower after the service.

Now this was an adventure. The man from the church (I never did catch his name) unlocked the door to the tower with one of those huge old fashioned keys, that I'm sure was as old as the church. And then, when we got in, I was amazed to find the most rickety ladders and stairs up to the top, almost pitch black, and covered in dust and dirt that I'm POSITIVE was 700 years old. I felt like Quasi-modo. To be honest, I was totally terrified to go up, but Peter's mom was in front of me, charging forward, and I couldn't be the one to chicken out. We climbed over beams, grabbed onto pipes, and finally were at the top. The view was truly amazing, and the man gave some fascinating information about the history and geography of the area. Well, at least I'm SURE it would have been fascinating if I understood Slovak. I did a lot of nodding though, and he seemed satified.

He showed us the clockworks for the clock, which were really cool, and the teeny, filthy room that used to be the living quarters for the guy who had to blow the trumpet every hour from the tower. Now they've got it mechanized, thank god.

After church, we went back to the house, and Lucy, her husband Gabriel, and the kids came over for sunday dinner, which was delicious. Then we drove up to Stary Smokovoc, right at the base of the High Tatras. We went on a bit of a hike (Peter's parents took the funicular up to the top with the kids) and I took lots of pictures of the beautful view. Lucy wasn't up for it, but Gabriel took me on a hike to see a gorgeous waterfall. Everyone else was waiting for us, so we kind of did the hike at a run. Whew, I'm glad I've been doing a lot of walking lately, otherwise I never would have made it.

When we got down to the bottom again, Gabriel took me to fill up some bottles with real Tatras mineral water, right out of a mountain. It came out fizzy, I was in complete shock! I don't think I ever grasped that mineral water came out like that, I just assumed it was carbonated in a factory or something. I guess I'm showing my ignorance there.

On the way home, Gabriel (by now my best buddy) took me to the train station to sort out a ticket to Budapest. I had to take a train to Kosice, and then transfer to Budapest. He actually had to go to Kosice on the same train for work (he repairs pipe organs in churches and had to do a lot of travelling) so he agreed to pick me up bright and early and go with me to Kosice.

Bright and early is right. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning, and he picked me up at 5:10! I was very sad to say goodbye to Peter's parents, but they were so sweet and got up early to make me a huge breakfast, and gave me enough food for the train to feed me for a week.

When we got to Kosice, I had about an hour until I had my next train, so Gabriel showed me all around the town and took me to a cafe for a coffee. And he carried my pack the whole time, and seemed very concerned when I tried to carry it. Does he realize I've carried it on my own the whole time? Then he took me back to the station, got me on the train with my pack on the rack. What an absolutely kind and helpful person. Did I mention he doesn't speak a word of English? Or German? Or French? We managed to communicate with the approximately 10 words of English he knew and the little Slovak I knew. To give you an idea, the only word we both knew for "bad" was "Catastrophe." So anything the least bit bad was a "Catastrophe." We managed though, and I feel like I really made a good friend.

So now I'm in Budapest, I made it to the Mellow Mood hostel, (only a slight difficulty, the metro is being repaired and I needed to take a special detour bus..yikes!) and met up with Chris and Antonia. Jo is coming tomorrow to meet us all here.

Unfortunately Antonia has some health problems and is going to be flying home 2 weeks early, so Chris and I (friends for life, as my brother would say) are going to travel together for the rest of our trips. He was supposed to go to Croatia after this, but he's going to come to Slovenia with me now. And we might jog over to Croatia as well, since both of us are too scared to go alone, but would be fine going together.

Tomorrow I go to a real Hungarian bath (massages, mud baths, thermal waters, all absoultely dirt cheap!) So that will be grand. Tonight we'll lay low, although we're going to try to meet up with some Australians that we met in Krakow.

I love you all, thanks for reading this excessively long post. Love your comments, talk to you soon!