happy new year

happy new year everyone! i rang the year in here in krakow at a hostel party featuring free beer and wine and champagne and food all night (all night means till well after 6 a.m.), and approximately 7 men for every woman. it's a good combination.

we went to the town square at midnight to watch the fireworks with a bunch of Scots in kilts and if you haven't wandered around an eastern european city with a man in a kilt on new year's eve then you haven't lived. everybody loves the Scots! People would come up to them and just give them cans of beer. Everyone wanted a photo. Drunk middle aged women giggled hysterically and tried to look up their kilts.

i went to bed at 6 but woke up again around 9 to the sound of a drunken australian who had lost the keys to his locker shouting HAPPY FUCKIN NEW YEAR in the middle of the room. he had to board a plane in a couple of hours. the receptionist couldn't find extra keys for the lockers. someone came in with a crowbar and tore the doors off two of the lockers. so that's 2007 so far.

as for other krakow events...so that night i was supposed to go back to the bar to meet the Canadian and the Belgian i either was too late or they didn't show because they weren't there. but I did discover that the drunk english guy is the sort of alcoholic who ends the night with his fly undone and mysterious stains on the front of his trousers, as he tries to convince you to get in a taxi with him to go dancing at another club. your refusal will elicit comments like "why? i dont....i don't want to SHAG you!" well honey, that is really beside the point. when i arrived anyway he was on the verge of being kicked out of the bar but he did introduce me to some people before he was tossed. one of them was Olga who said 'i am going to some other bars, you can come with me if you like'. okay! she took me to awesome places i would never have found on my own.
The next morning Keith took me off on a walking tour of the city, but unfortunately it was so foggy there was almost no point. Still it was really nice and he also introduced me to the fine dish of potato pancakes with goulash.
So far i have managed to eat perogies every single day without fail.

Finally, mystical energy and planned obsolescence have teamed up to destroy my camera. I think the warranty expired three days ago. Yesterday I went to Wawel castel which apparently hosts one of the 7 great energy chakras of the earth in one corner of the courtyard.
All i know is that my camera was working 5 minutes before i went in there, i stood in that area of the courtyard for about 5 minutes, and then 30 seconds later as i walked away and tried to turn the camera on it started screeching and beeping like R2D2 in a microwave.
Which is why i have no photos of the madness that was last night. major bummer.