Writing from Wroclaw

---

Woke up before the alarm this morning, mostly because I didn't really sleep. I kept checking the time every hour or so until just before 4am when I decided to give up and just get up. Got my stuff, left the hostel and took a cab in the pouring rain to the night bus to Prestwick airport. The cab driver had me a little worried when he asked if I'd already gotten my bus ticket, and I'd said no. He said I might not get a seat on the bus, as he'd seen people being turned away on other occasions. Fortunately, Tues. morning is not a particularly popular bus time, as the bus left the terminal half-empty. Made it to the airport in plenty of time, checked in, and then went to eat my breakfast. I'd bought a couple of pain au chocolat (think chocolate croissants) and ate those for breakfast. Yum! When I went through security with my stuff, they stopped me to pat me down since I'd set off a beep on the metal detector. Weird. I had nothing in my pockets, and have no idea what set it off. Then they wanted to test the contents of one of my travel-sized liquids. Apparently the hand sanitizer had them worried, but the test turned out fine and I was on my way. I slept through the flight, and was pretty wiped when I reached the Wroclaw airport.

Got my bag and made my way through the terminal to a bank machine. I really hope I didn't get ripped off, but I had no choice on taking money out since I had no Polish Zloty. Got the cash, bought a Coke (so I could get change for the bus) and took the bus to the train station. I could have taken a cab, but it would have cost me $15-20 instead of the 85 cents or so that the bus cost. I started walking from the train station in the extreme heat. It was sunny and hot (30C?) and with two bags I was sweating. I think that the hostel's directions were a little misleading, since it sounded like a 5 min. walk, and it was taking me closer to half an hour. At one point I stumbled and twisted my ankle on an uneven step, and that slowed me down a bit too. 😞

Finally I reached the hostel, and I was glad to see (so far) a room to myself and an ensuite washroom. I took a shower, put on some shorts and a tank top, and set about walking around town. Wroclaw is a pretty city! At least, the city centre is. The city hall is a gorgeous building with lots of detail, and the surrounding buildings are beautiful too. I discovered in the Tourist Info Centre that there are bronze dwarves around town, hiding here and there, and I've found a few to photograph. I also went to one of the oldest areas, where there's a tower in a church which is the highest point in the city. I went up and took some aerial shots of the city. There are about a million churches here! It did start to rain on my way back to the hostel, but not too badly, and it seemed to wipe some of the humidity out of the air.

Found a Carrefour supermarket, and after a supper of cheese and bread, I'm deciding if I want to go out again and take some night shots or write some postcards to send home.... I'm off to Krakow tomorrow, which should easily be as impressive as Wroclaw has been.

---