Friday, July 2

Oh, damn, this was a full day. I'll do what I can here. We left Bratislava at about 9:00 in the morning. We thought we would have major roads all day, but the Biotch had another thought entirely. Took about 5 hours to wind our way through the rural Slovakian villages and countryside and make our way diretly to Auschwitz. At one point we really did think we were hearing banjos out yonder. But the Biotch is set to go the fastest way. It WAS a bit worrisome when we were on a new section of interstate type stuff and she just went off and said "calculating....calculating....calculating"....over and over....and here we were on a brand new road with no turns in sight. It gives one really bad gas to know that you're depending on this thing for the rest of the trip. HOWEVER.....we figured out that the new roads were freshly opened, not in the software, ....probably. Or something. Rest of the day was just fine

• Stopped for lunch at a convenience store; got some bread, cheese, cokes, some kinda meat, and a couple tins of unrecognizeable meat product that ended in "ski". Definitely not the caliber of a Mary Kay picnic, but we enjoyed the lunch anyway. Including the methane aftermath.
• Got to Auschwitz I about 2:00; took a 2-hour guided tour of that part of the facility; drove out to Auschwitz II, called "Birkenau", and finished up the tour with the guide. Lots of pictures, and, of course, an extremely moving visit. It's hard to get one's arms around, really.
• Left Birkenau via the Biotch about 6:00, got to Krackow, to our hostel, about 8:00. Tough parking...we hope the car is there in the morning.Old, winding little cobblestone streets, cars parked on the sidewalks everywhere.... The hostle is called "Goodbyle Lenin", and is about 200 yards from the pedestrian area of one of the most vibrant European city centers I've ever seen. We're smack in the middle of anything happenin'. Thousands and thousands of people out on a Friday night. Stunning architecture, live acts, sidewalk restaurants..on and on. We ate at one of those sidewalk places. Asked the family next to us to choose a good Polish item from the menu. So there's a whole category of little ravioli things; stuff it with different ingredients, combinations are endless. The name of the dish is "Pierogi". Mine was, actually, "Pierogi 2 Kaposta i Grzyband Okraszone Skwarkami". These folks need to buy a vowel every now and then.
• Finished dinner and drinks, back to the hostel. There's really noisy Karoki going on downstairs, but...uh....I think we'll sleep.
• To the Spiss Castle in Slovakia tomorrow, then on to Budapest for the night. We'll see what the Biotch has in store. That's turning out to be half the story here!