Another late start, as I woke up at 11:00am. I put on my jeans and went downstairs for the great free breakfast. Robbert and Nikola were going out to explore the Jewish Quarter. I also wanted to go, but needed to get everything organized. We checked out of the hostel by 12:30.
Walking past Wawel Castle, we came upon the Jewish Quarter. I paid the 7 slotsky admission to enter the oldest synagogue in Poland. It had been rebuilt after its destruction in WWII. Some of the descriptions of Jewish Holidays were incorrect, but it was a nice museum.
Back at the hostel, Jon and I decided that we would go to Zakopane, Poland, and stay at the sister "Good Bye Lenin" hostel. Jon had wanted to see the Tatra mountains and this would be a perfect opportunity.
Nikola called a van taxi as we were all heading to the bus station. We left, saying goodbye to another fantastic hostel. The taxi driver ended up overcharging us quite a bit. We walked with our new friends to the station where we said goodbye. It had been two crazy, random days with this group of students and we exchanged contact information to stay in touch.
Jon and I spent the next hour shopping for dinner. With the extra time before our bus back to Zakopane, we decided to check the train times back to Prague. What should have been easy an easy office to find, became a tedious, frustrating endeavor as we kept walking in circles to find the international office. Finally. The train tomorrow to Prague would be more expensive than one coming Poland.
We slept the 3 hour bus ride to Zakopane arriving in the ski resort town around 8:30pm. Getting off the bus, it was definitely the coldest it had been during the whole trip. We tried looking at the map and calling the hostel but to no avail. We stopped in a 4 star hotel and were fortunate enough to talk to a very nice receptionist who called a taxi to pick us up. Good thing, as the walk would have been more than hour and very confusing.
The taxi let us out in the middle of a snow covered road, dark and cold. We walked up a hill toward a bright light, coming upon a very cute and cozy log cabin. This awesome lodge was to be our hostel.
We came inside and checked in. The interior was all wood with comfy leather couches in a the living room. We met another Australian kid (its their summer vacation so they are all in Europe!) and then saw our room. Rustic and comfortable, our window gave us an incredible view of the snow laden pine forest. Looking at the prices and location of the ski resorts, we decided to go skiing the next day. We made another dinner of excellent sandwiches while watching the coverage of the crisis in Gaza and the fuel crisis between Russia and Ukraine.
Going to bed in the amazing hostel, we were excited for the next day and marveled at the fortune we had had with taking a chance on spontaneity.
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