Oh my goodness. First off, we woke up to pouring rain. Had we stayed in Berlin one extra night, we would have arrived in Malbork to find it totally booked, with the castle closed, and …RAIN!!!! Thank heavens, we skipped the zoo! We had to reserve a place on the train, so we got up early, had breakfast, and got to the station in plenty of time to reserve our seats. We thought we were totally cool. A first train went by and it left incredibly fast. The next train pulled up and we read the numbers on the sides of the cars - our seat numbers were printed on one - so we jumped on. Seconds later, we discovered we were on Car 3, not Car 12. Quickly, we jumped off, only to have the conductor scream at us to get back on, which we did, in a panic. Moments later, and we mean, moments, the train pulled out. We spent the next twenty minutes walking through the whole train - the walkway barely wider than our backpacks - having to shove past all the people who, as we told you in an earlier entry, love to stand and look out the window. When we finally got to our seats, we were separated into two different berths and Connor and Tessa had no room for their luggage, so they ended up sitting in a different berth than they were supposed to. Another lesson learned, but it was kind of funny.

The rest of the trip was quite calm, but when we hit Warsaw, we were saddened to see more rain. However, when we walked out of the station, we were greeted by wet streets but a warm, sunny sky. We seem to have very good luck this way. After we found our hostel - after trying to catch a bus without tickets, then catching a bus on the wrong side of the street, and finally a bus on the right side of the street - the kids settled into the common room. Meanwhile Barry and Margaret headed off for a grocery store. We ended up finding not the closest grocery store, but some far off location, which involved getting lost, having a beer (of course), and begging the help of many Polish people to find our way. When we returned, we fried some steak, boiled some perogies, and tossed a (very garlic filled) Caesar salad for supper.

To cap off the evening, we watched Apoctolypto on the hostel's DVD/TV, which totally traumatised Tessa - so much for a perfect day. We told her the movie had covered the content of some high school social studies class, but she didn't buy it. She'll have nightmares forever.

The kids have a double room to themselves tonight, so Margaret and Barry will have to tough it out in a private room with a double bed. Oh, the sacrifices parents make…

Overall, the day was pretty successful, and if good weather helps us out tomorrow, we expect another one.