BRATISLAVA AND KRAKOW

On Tuesday May 2, Dave and I passed through four different countries by train. We left Budapest early in the morning, and rode two hours to Bratislava, Slovakia. This is where half of Dave's heritage begins, so we made a special stop to explore the town and have some lunch. It was a nice stroll through a historic district, with a great town square and theater house. Our favorite highlight, though, was lunch.

We ate at a place called Korzo, a little off the beaten tourist path. Dave had cabbage soup, and I had fish soup, likely the most outstanding soups either of us have ever had, perfectly complimented by fresh bagettes and our drinks of choice. Dave had a local specialty for a main course, a type of heavy pasta dumpling with cheese and bits of bacon. Mine was a vegetable struedel. Awesome. We also spent some time in the lovely St. Martin's Cathedral before heading back through town to the train station.

On a brief sidenote, let me observe that the train travel was such a pleasure. We had a combination of four trains that day, and each of them had particular charm and conveniences. It was lovely to watch the countryside go by, and the ride was smooth and relaxing. Apart from coming within 10 seconds of missing our last connection of course. And accidentally sitting on the smoking car, I could have lived without that. And one station had some deranged old woman that stood literally six inches from my face staring at me. But overall, very nice.

On the train I read about Auschwitz in our guidebook, which is only about 50 miles outside of Krakow. We elected not to visit this time, but it was very moving to read about it in terms of physically being there, and it was emotional for me to contemplate it as part of the history outside my window. I really do intend to go back someday.

We arrived in Krakow late in the evening. After a lunatic cab ride for 5 minutes that nearly caused a drunk pedestrian serious injury, we were set up in our hotel and back down to the street. Although our hotel was just adequate, we were a half block off the main city square, so our first hour in the neighborhood was fantastic. The area of the city square is constantly filled with pedestrians, cafes, shops and clubs, and everyone seemed our age or younger. It was incredibly lively. We finished the evening by watching Se7en in Polish.

Wednesday morning we toured the "Royal Way Walk," a path that kings would traverse upon coronation or funeral. It's a reasonably short walk from a very old city gate and watchtower, through the main square, and to Wawel Castle at the other end of town. Unbelievably we ran into another holiday parade -- this time Constitution Day, which yielded some kicky horses, so we kept moving. We saw the inside of the Wawel Cathedral, which was just gorgeous.

The highlight of Poland for me was the food. (Did you expect anything else?) That afternoon I started a tasting spree of pierogis that would include five different types: mushroom and sauerkraut, tart cherry with sour cream, meat, plum, and potato with cheese. The mushroom were my favorite, cherry was Dave's.

Soon enough it was cone thirty, just like Budapest everyone in sight was walking around with ice cream. I believe we had a nap in there somewhere, back to the pierogis, some more strolling around the shops and cafes, and dinner at a pizza and kabob stand. Did I mention the food was good?

The next day we took a walk to the Jewish Quarter (which I found unremarkable), and had lunch that included an appetizer of pickled herring, a favorite of mine courtesy of my father. We rested for an hour in the "Planty;" interestingly, the town used to be surrounded by a moat, and it's been filled in to make a park that encircles the city. While Dave snoozed on the park bench, I watched an old man feed the pidgeons, and it was one of those great little details that softens your heart.

We had a drink on the square, and went back to our hotel restaurant for a snack. Ironically one of my favorite dishes in Eastern Europe was a plate of French cheeses, I never knew they could be so... euphoric! It was more cheese than a responsible person should eat in a year, but we finished it all, including the unique and tasty rose jam they were served with. Then we headed back to the train station for our next adventure, an overnight train to Prague...