Our last day in Krakow and the next overnight train ride

the entrance to our apartment in Krakow

We slept in since we had to pack and leave the apartment by 11 am.  Pulling our luggage behind us, we wandered back to our rental agency near the main square.  They promised they were staying open until 9 pm so we could store our luggage there until 8 pm.  We would catch the train at 10:30 pm. 

And speaking of luggage, packing our luggage for this trip was difficult.  We will be traveling for 31 days, through several different climates, and also want camera equipment and a laptop with us.  The camera is a Canon 20D with polarizer, grad ND filter, teleconverter, additional flash, etc. in a backpack. The laptop goes in another backpack.   Our clothes had to fit into 2 carry-on size bags.  I hope I’m not constantly doing laundry but at least I managed to fit in the obligatory 4 pairs of shoes.

the Barbican (entrance through the old city wall

The tour bus from the 3 pm salt mine tour dropped us back at the Barbican at 7 pm.  We retrieved our luggage from the apartment rental agency and said good-bye to Kamil (the agent who had been so helpful).  After finding a café on the square that we hadn’t tried yet (an indication of just how many cafes there are), we ordered a cheese plate, cream of zucchini soup and a beer for dinner.  We also stopped at the McDonalds to see its Medieval cellar.  Rick Steves called it a McVault and I couldn’t pass that by.

Now on to the train.

Mr Beer Mug was very attentive to young women

  We walked back to the train station at 9 pm by a much more direct route than we had used to arrive.  The station is right next to a modern shopping mall which I’d managed to overlook previously.  Now all we had to do was walk past the brightly-lit mall right into the upper level of the station, also brightly-lit.  We wanted the train to Bratislava but Bratislava wasn’t listed on the departures board.  One woman assured us that the train to Budapest would get us to Bratislava, one train conductor told us it wouldn’t and a second conductor said it would.  The second conductor insisted we leave our EuroRail passes with him and he would give them back in the morning.  Taking a deep breath, we left the tickets with the second conductor (anybody in a maroon jacket standing outside the train must be a conductor, right?) and got into the indicated coach and compartment.  We knew we were in real trouble if this was the wrong train and if we didn’t get our EuroRail passes back.

the Krakow train station

  We would be God-knows-where without any tickets to get anyplace else.

On the bright side, the private compartment was very comfortable, air-conditioned and was apparently going somewhere, even if not Bratislava.  And I was tired so I slept.