Duncan and Joe

There are a series of famous baths around Budapest, and we came to one in the park a couple days prior that looked worthwhile. We were originally supposed to leave this morning for Krakow, but liked Budapest so much that we extended our stay. 

By design, we did very little in the way of physical activity today. The baths are extensive in the sauna and pool options available, and we took the full day to relax. 

We devoured a delicious Balkan meat plate after a stressful day lounging around. 

Joe and I spent most of the early part of the day in the hostel’s lobby. I backfilled the majority of the blog posts and Joe continued work on his programming projects. 

In the early evening we headed to the train station to board our overnight train from Budapest to Krakow. Total train time, 11 hours, the majority of which we hoped we’d be able to spend sleeping.

Our two person train room was delightful. We chowed on McDonalds we’d purchased near the train station, and watched the sun set over the surrounding countryside. After eating, we settled into our berths before heading into the main train aisle where we watched the transition from twilight into night. As far as I could tell, we had this train car to ourselves, with only an occasional passing from the train attendant. Joe settled into his berth to read and I stood in front of the open window for another hour, delighted by the cool air, the silhouette of the surrounding countryside, and the rhythmic thumping of the train over the train tracks. 

We woke up early the next morning for the arrival into Krakow. More beautiful countryside. Our arrival was delayed by an hour so Joe taught me some licks in the meantime. 

We arrived at the Krakow Glowny train station around 8am. I’d slept great on the train, but Joe had a harder time sleeping. Luckily, our apartment was right next to the main train station, so we dropped of our luggage at the apartment rental company’s office and went off to do some exploring. 

The Krakow old town was beautiful, but definitely very touristy, as “old towns” in the European cities seem to be. We did a loop around to get our bearings and explored the wonderful Planty park that surrounds the old town. 

We grabbed a bite at a cafe and then headed back to the apartment. Joe rested to recoup some hours of sleep lost on the night before, and I headed off to the Polish Aviation museum via bike. The bike ride to the museum was lovely. It passed through a forest full of shedding dandelions, giving it the look it was snowing. 

The flight museum was a mixture of indoor and outdoor exhibits. You couldn’t go in most of the planes, but you could walk right up next to them and take a look inside. They also exposed the mechanical components of some plane wings and engines, so I spent some time examining these intricate mostly hydraulic/pneumatic (I believe…) mechanisms. How often do you get to see a jet engine up close?

I biked back to the apartment, and Joe and I went to a delicious vegetarian meal in the Old Town.