12pm
Yesterday I got into Wroclaw, Poland at about 7pm after a cramped, excessively long train ride. 7 hours to cover 187 miles. Awesome. The trains to both Krakow and Warsaw were pretty empty, so I wasn't planning on this one being busy. However, I'd failed to realize that it was a Saturday afternoon train. Days of the week get all jumbled when you travel like this. I probably would have gotten a decent seat if I hadn't accidently gotten in a first class car when the train first arrived. So when I finally found a second class compartment that wasn't completely full, I had to sit in the crack between two different seats. Very uncomfortable. So much for the sleep I desperately needed. I've had a cold for a couple of days now - thanks mom for making me think I have H1/N1! I spent some time panicking about that one last night. Anyway, I'm sure it's just a normal cold brought on by the unexpected weather, but it's annoying, plus I feel bad since I'm sleeping in dorms, etc. I felt awful on the train since there were six people in our tiny compartment, and I kept coughing and sneezing. All I wanted to do was blow my nose, but I felt that would be rude. And I didn't want to leave the compartment since there were a bunch of drunk polish guys in the corridor yelling and throwing things out the window. Oh the wonders of riding the train with the locals.

I get to my hostel to discover that there are only Polish people in my room. There was an older man laying in his bed, and he just stared at me while I unpacked my bag. So creepy. I'm hoping that most of them will leave today since it's the end of the weekend. Not that there's anything wrong with Polish people (for the most part), but only one of them speaks English. Funny enough, he's lived in Bloomington and has been to Champaign. The first person I meet who's familiar with my hometown is Polish.

It's noon now, and the only place I've been in Wroclaw is the mall. The Polish LOVE their malls. They're gigantic and I'm pretty sure there's one every five blocks in every direction. Anyway, there's always a grocery store in the basement of each mall - I went to pick up some orange juice. This was some hoity toity speciality store - one where they put all the bows on their jams and sauces, etc. Yet it was still really cheap - have I mentioned how great Poland is?

I think the funniest thing about Poland is how hard they seem to try to be a Westernized country. But Polish people are just so dorky. Everything looks Westernized, but then you see the Poles - the way they dress, talk act - they have a ways to go. Which reminds me - Mom, I saw some woman in Warsaw wearing that pretty, embroidered wool coat you have - didn't you get it at TJ Maxx? I bet that's why. Whoever made it found out it was selling in Poland, and they decided they couldn't have that, so they resigned the rest of them to TJ Maxx. Ha.

6pm

Today hasn't been the greatest of days. It's rained pretty much nonstop, and neither of my shoes are waterproof. I'm pissed about these boots I spent $60 on - they're already falling apart. To be fair I do a lot of walking on cobbled streets, but still, I bought them less than three weeks ago. Shoes over here are all so expensive; you'd think they'd hold up better. Anyway, I went out twice today, both times returning with sopping wet shoes and socks.

Wroclaw is a gorgeous town - I find it prettier than both Krakow and Prague - it's just much quainter/less overrun with tourists. However, there isn't much to see, and with no one to talk to, I covered all the sights in a few hours. I'm back at the hostel now, probably for the night. Wroclaw's night life is apparently great, but alas I don't feel comfortable walking into a bar alone in a foreign country. If only I were a man . . . I feel like I say that at least once a day on this trip (and about 40 times a day when I was in Istanbul). I think Wroclaw would be a lot of fun if I were here with someone, but since that's not the case, I'm going back to Krakow tomorrow morning. Hopefully, this time tomorrow I'll have just got done eating at that awesome Polish restaurant with the potato pancakes.

I went through such a hassle to end up spending one day here, most of it in the hostel, but I've realized that I'm happy to just have the experiences - be it good, bad, embarassing, or seemingly a waste of time. Doing nothing in Nathan's Villa Hostel in Wroclaw is still much more interesting than doing nothing in my bedroom back home. For example, I wouldn't have the Creepy Old Polish Man staring at me (again) in the kitchen as I write this. Thankfully he checked out of the room, along with everyone else, as I thought would happen. But now my room's empty except for this one guy my age that came in today. I think he's an Aussie, but he seems really quite, and quite and Aussie are not two words that EVER go together. So maybe he's British. At least he's not Creepy Old Polish Man. Who snored really, really loud.

I was excited about my dinner tonight, because I splurged on some gourmet pesto sauce, but it turned out to be more olive oil than pesto, and now my pasta is all greasy. Nothing can go right here apparently. Now that I look at the jar, there's a picture of an olive oil bottle next to what says "Pesto alla Genovese". Maybe that means extra oily pesto. Once again I buy the wrong thing. One of the things I miss the most about the states is food. Knowing exactly what you're ordering or buying, asking questions or making specifications about what you want, etc. I've eaten a meal with mushrooms twice now. I've already decided that the first thing I'm doing upon being back in the States is ordering a giant cheeseburger, and relishing in my ability to ask for it well done with Swiss instead of cheddar and no onions please.