Hello everyone! So sorry for the delay in getting our first journal entry on the mighty web! I'll try to do one as often as possible so please keep looking! I also still haven't had chance to upload any pics yet, so this is why the random shots of Prague are on here! Will try and figure it out asap! Well, we're two weeks into our holiday now and things are going great. Our first week in Prague was cool just to chill out and relax in the city we knew quite well. Did all the touristy things like walking across Charles Bridge and up the Powder Tower. The weather was a bit miserable to start with but the sun came out a few days later. In fact, not to rub it in but last Monday when you may have been beavering away at work, we were lazing about on the river in a pedalo getting a sun tan! He he. Last Tuesday we got the train to Krakow. It took about eight hours but time flew by quickly. The town is very pretty, but on a much smaller scale than Prague. In fact, we haven't had to get any trams at all, it's all navigable on foot. But we're here in quite a strange week - the Pope visited yesterday! It's like a festival atmosphere, bunting everywhere, people waving flags, and 600,000 people flocking to a field to hear his mass! We thought we may as well join in the fun and stood by the roadside to catch a glimpse. In fact we got quite a good view as he went past in his little Pope-mobile! Very holy. But there is one problem - because Poland is a Catholic country, in respect of the Pope's visit, alcohol has been banned all weekend. We went to the pub on Friday night and all we could get were coffee and soft drinks. It's actually illegal for pubs to sell alcohol and the prohibition isn't lifted till 6pm tonight! We thought we'd got round it though, as a Polish girl from our hostel got us tickets to a private party last night which should have sold alcohol. Unfortunetly the Polish government had even cracked down on private parties so we were left sitting in the club drinking fruit smoothies. Quite surreal! On a darker note, we also made a trip to Aushwitz (not sure of spelling!) the other day. I'm really glad we went but it was very shocking. I think the thing that hits you the most is the visual displays of the items the Nazis collected from their victims; thousands of shoes piled up, suitcases piled high, and even tonnes of hair they cut from the women to sell to the cloth trade. Shocking. On a lighter note, we've booked our train ticket to Budapest. It's a whopping 11 hour overnight journey but we've got a sleeper carriage which should be an adventure! I'll keep you all posted about how we get on! Take care, Love Nikki xx