Friday, and what a Friday it's been

I promised not to talk much about work, but I need to mention something about it to allow my readers to appreciate why this day was different than normal.  My company president came to Kraków today to see the operations and meet the new employees.  It was kind of a big deal for me because I've never met him.  However, one does not rise to the top of a consulting business without being personable; he was very easy to talk to, and everything went well as near as I can tell.  And that's all I'm going to say about that.

After work, I went to the general meeting of the language club to relax.  I'm glad that I have Polish friends here that continue to show me new things.  I learned about some new areas of Kazimierz that I'm going to need to explore and take note of.  This weekend may be a good time to do that, as there is also a honey festival in Kazimierz that I'm planning on attending.

There will be a resurgence of pictures this weekend as I have more time to explore.  It's really strange to think that I have less than four weeks left in Kraków!

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Zakopane Addendum

In the routine of the week, I don't have a whole lot new to report.  Things are pretty normal here.  Although I'm still learning new items, they come at a slower pace and with less surprise than initially.

Here are a couple of more observations about the weekend in Zakopane:

• Grilled cheese means something entirely different over here than what we think of in the US.
• Finding the words that are different between Australian English and American English is fun.  Example: Sarah and I both see something at the festival grounds.  Her/me (simultaneously), "Candy floss!"/"Cotton candy!" Then we look at each other and after a few seconds she says, "OK, what do you call it?"
• I've heard that for years there was this guy that dressed up as a white bear in town and tourists would flock to get their pictures taken with him.  However, it was kind of a dirty, gray bear costume and the guy was half-drunk most of the time.  He apparently became something of a Zakopane legend. We did not see him.  My informants were disappointed at this.
• We did, however, see Bugs Bunny, Hello Kitty, and several other non-identifiable mascots.  Hello Kitty should not exist as a mascot.
• Australian word for British citizens: POME ("pom").  Prisoners Of Mother England.
• Polish for "let's go" is chodźmy ("HODGE-meh").

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Weekend at Zakopane

This is going to be a long post, folks, because it details a rather exciting and full weekend for me.  I honestly don't think I've attempted to pack this much into a weekend since the wedding or maybe college.  I'll go chronologically and divide it into days to make it easier.

Zakopane is a town in the Tatra Mountains, part of the Carpathians.  It's about 2 hours away from Krakow. Almost anytime I ask someone what they're doing this weekend, "going to the mountains" is likely to come into the conversation.  I figured I should see what all the fuss was about.

Friday, August 24
After a hastily-planned trip devised during the week, we leave for Zakopane via bus at 7PM.  There were five of us taking off from Krakow, but we didn't see much of two of them, so I'm going to concentrate on the three principal actors.

1. Sarah, a Pole who has grown up in Australia, is both charming and very useful to have around because she's bilingual in Polish and English.  If she speaks in English, you'd think she's from Australia. If she speaks in Polish, people think she's from Poland.  
2. Justyna ("yous-TEN-ah"), a Lithuanian lady who is also fluent in Polish, English, Lithuanian, Ukranian, and some German, is a student who we met at a meeting of foreigners where this trip was conceived.  
3. And of course there's me, possessing English and Spanish capabilities (both of limited use here) and able to communicate in Polish in a manner slightly above grunting.  Of course, I also possess the ability to plan, which came in slightly more handy.

We arrive in Zakopane about 10PM and get a taxi to the hostel the ladies are staying at.  I chose to stay at a hotel roughly 1km away because I find that as the number of people in a room increases, the quality of sleep decreases.  Thus, I wanted a room to myself, not the room with 7 others that the hostel provided.

I had taken pains to write down the name, number, address, and a small map from the hostel to my hotel.  However, I lost this note somewhere in the journey.  However, since my job has given me many opportunities to improve my ability to memorize small factoids from notecards, I remember the map pretty well.  The name and address, not so much.

Mom, if you're reading, skip this paragraph.  So it's about 10:30 PM, and we're up a little ways into the mountain hills.  I need to get to my hotel from where the taxi let us off at their hostel.  I couldn't use the taxi to get to my hotel because I know how the name of the place.  So, I start walking down the road.  It's a clear night, but pitch black.  The road does a giant s-shape (a mountain switchback, I believe it's called), and only a few spaces have streetlights.  Also, there's no sidewalk, and I know I'm on a hill so the shoulder needs to be used with caution.  Between the lights of passing cars, the few street lights, and my cell phone, I manage to get to the hotel.  Upon further examination of Google maps, there was a shortcut that would have saved about half the distance, but I surely wouldn't have found that in the dark!

The hotel was nice, giving everything needed and not a lot else.  The curtains were very lacking in light-blocking ability, which gave me about 7 nice hours of sleep per night and one sort-of-sleep hour from 6-7AM.

Saturday, August 25
We get up, make contact by text, and prepare for departure towards Morskie Oko about 9AM.  To get to Morskie Oko, one needs to take a 12 km bus trip from our hostel/hotel area, then walk 9 km uphill to the actual lake.  The ladies have added a fourth to our group, a thickly-accented Australian guy (I should probably say "mate" out of respect to the culture) named Saul.

We caught a bus which was standing-room only en route to Morskie Oko.  This was expected; the buses originate from the center of Zakopane and pick up people along the way, which was about 4 km of pickups before it got to us.  Thus, we were the last ones on this particular bus.  For all of it, I was standing.  This is the closest experience I've ever had to surfing.  Mountain switchback roads + crazy Polish bus driver + standing at the front = surfing?  Anyway, after some questionable maneuvers, we arrived at the parking lot to the national park containing these mountain ranges.

A 9 km uphill walk awaited us.  We could have taken a horse-drawn cart ride up for 40 PLN each (about 12.25 USD), but we came to walk, not ride.  Also, the horses didn't seem to be going that much faster than the people, so the only savings was in effort, not time.  Not for us!

9 km takes about 2.5 hours to walk, depending on how many breaks you take.  2.5 hours of uphill walking is more than enough to break a sweat, but we got to see gorgeous views.  I took 170+ pictures on this weekend.  Here are some from our walk up to Morskie Oko:

That's Saul and Sarah in the last photo.

I should mention at this point that before starting out, we had stopped at a small store to get some provisions.  I intentionally bought more than needed, hoping to share with the group in exchange for the language and culture handicap I brought.  Ideally, I would have found something like Clif bars or Power bars, but none were sold in that store.  I settled for candy; although it was nice for my sweet tooth, this is one of the few situations I can justify eating candy nutritionally - quick energy required.

After roughly 2.5 hours, we reached the shores of Morskie Oko:

At this point, we took a break, had some ice cream at a restaurant/store/bar area there, and looked around at what else there was to do.  It turns out that there's a second lake, Czarny Staw, which is higher than Morskie Oko but also is at a crest that provides great views of it.

This side-trip was another hour of walking, at a distance I estimate to be 3 km.  However, the last kilometer is something like a rocky staircase: pretty much straight incline for a good distance.  At this point, Sarah's energy gave out and she urged us to go on without her.  However, I'm far more stubborn encouraging than that.  We took breaks, I gave her a Twix package I brought for just such an emergency, and we ascended the slope.

I should mention that at this point, I'm convinced Justyna is Superwoman.  The rest of us have happily sat on rocks as the breaks were required; Justyna hasn't sat down yet.  I'm not sure if she sat down the entire day until the bus ride back to town.  Apparently long walks are just part of her life and she's good at them!

The views from the crest were amazing!  Remember also, this isn't a mountain peak; it's merely a landing on the giant climb to the peak.  (We didn't go to the peak; this was quite enough for us.)

This is where the postcard shots of Morskie Oko come from!  The first photo is Sarah, the second is Saul and Justyna, and the third is me.  The fourth is our victory shot!  The rest are just pretty.  In the last photo, directly across the lake you can see a small building.  That's the restaurant/bar/store area.  It's not tiny; it's just really, really far away here.

After resting at the peak, we slowly descended first back to the Morskie Oko "base camp," as I call it (the restaurant area), and then to the entrance to the park.  Although walking downhill is easier than uphill, it was still a very long journey.  At this point, I count something like 24 km of sheer hiking, whether uphill or downhill.  A half-marathon is 21 km, so this is more than 14 miles of walking over roughly 7 hours.  This doesn't count the pre-hike walking, which is probably another 2 km for me.

We took the bus directly in to Zakopane's downtown rather than going to our hotels first; it just make more sense that way.  When we got on the ground at Zakopane, the first order of business was food.  We hadn't really had lunch.  We just ate snacks when we needed more energy.  By this time, all of us (even Superwoman) were very hungry.  Very, very hungry:

Yes, we ate all of it, and none of us were sorry.

After dinner, we walked around a little, but pretty much all of us were ready to pass out.  So, we got a taxi back to our respective sleeping places (no way was I doing that walk in the dark again!), and we all crashed.

Sunday, August 26
Walking something like 28 km will do wonders for your sleep.  Although the sun still awoke me at 6AM, I managed to doze until 7AM before getting up, dressed, and heading down to my hotel's breakfast.  I texted Sarah at 8AM; she responded at 9AM and we were on our way at 10AM.

One of my Polish friends heard I was going to Zakopane this weekend and told me that there was a festival in town and I had to see the parade on Sunday.  It turns out it's a highlanders or folklore festival, and the parade on Sunday is a procession in traditional dress from various nations.  After exploring a little, we grabbed a front-row seat with some snacks and watched as the performers walked by:

There were no fewer than four Polish groups that walked by at various intervals.  The last picture with the funny shoes is of the French group, interestingly.

We poked around town a little longer, but didn't see much else of this caliber at the festival.  So, about 3:30 PM we got on a bus just as the first drops of rain were beginning to fall.  The weather had been great this entire time, so putting our exit right at the first sign of rain seemed like blessed timing.

I'm tired (not running tomorrow morning!) and I've seen a lot, but it was a lot of fun!  I got to meet lots of people, get to know a good crew on the hike, and practice my Australian accent.  (Nice = "noice", sweet = "sweot", etc.)  I probably won't make it back to Zakopane for a long time or maybe ever, but I'll carry the memories with me forever.

Today is August 26th; in one month, I leave Poland.

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Busy Days!

The next few days are going to be very busy for me.  Today, I cam back to the apartment, ate a quick dinner, and went out to do a little souvenir shopping before going to Spanish night.  Spanish night was fun, but I had to leave early to make sure I could get everything planned for the trip to Zakopane (mountain town) tomorrow evening.  You won't be hearing from me until about Sunday if all goes well, because I'm not planning on taking my laptop or anything much with me on the excursion.

I leave you with some pictures of the folk art festival currently taking over half of the main square.  This is an actual blacksmith working on some tourist goods:

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Readjustment Continues

Having been back in the U.S. now for a few days, I've had more time to digest being here and notice what stands out to me.  It's strange how things can be so familiar you don't even bat an eye, and then--you see that little something that makes you double-take.

I think I'm having to get used to looking out my windows and seeing large expanses of green.  It's not just that the urban environment in Krakow didn't provide much green space (and besides, there was the Planty!); it's that when I left the country, all the grass I saw here was brown.  I think it also has to do with the amount of space I can see, though.  It feels like it takes longer to walk places here.  Even though I know that I did much more walking in Krakow than on campus, it just seems like so far between buildings!

Yesterday was the first day I've worn shorts in...a while.  Probably close to a week.  It is warmer here than in Krakow when I left, but I was sticking to capris until yesterday.

I think I've been subconsciously seeking out food that I didn't have in Poland.  Beef sounded good more than once since I've gotten to campus, and the first lunch I had on campus was an Asian-style stir-fry!  Today I had peanut butter (on toast) for the first time in weeks.  It almost felt strange to go back to eating some of the "normal" breakfast foods I was used to having.

Finally, I'm noticing the prices of things more, and I'm comparing them in zlotys.  For example, parking on campus on Monday cost just a little under $5.  Not bad, you say?  In my mind, I was thinking, "Wait.  That's a hot lunch and maybe an ice cream cone to boot if I was in Poland...  Why is parking so darn expensive???"  And yet I pay it like it's just part of routine...because it is.

I feel like where I am is real, is authentic; and yet I also feel like I could wake up one morning and be right back in the apartment on Mikołajska St. and life would continue as it had been.  Last night, I dreamed about bocadillos, those sandwiches with smoked ham or bacon from Spain.  Part of me seemed to be asking, "Where did it all go?"  This feeling may be fading, as I know my GA duties now, and I've started the real "work" of studying, but I'm still going to miss it.

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Couchsurfing group

Tonight I went to another group of foreigners, primarily English-speaking ones.  It's a "couchsurfing" group, which sounds like basically a way to stay for free at others' homes.  There appears to be some sort of website associated with it, but I haven't been there myself.  Anyway, it was near the apartment and a good way to meet people.  Several of the others from the Language Exchange group (both English and Spanish nights) as well as some others I knew were there.

In chatting tonight, I may have set up a trip to go to the mountains.  "Go to the mountains" appears to be a popular activity around here, centering mostly around the town of Zakopane about two hours to the south of Krakow.  This puts it at the foothills of the Tatras mountains, which is the border with Poland and Slovakia.  I've kind of wanted to go there, and almost had an opportunity last weekend, but I'm nervous about going without a native speaker.  My understanding is that the further away you get from big cities, the worse the English gets.

So, we'll see what comes of this.  If it materializes, then there may be a lack of blog posts this weekend.

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Polish Folk Art Festival

Over the past few days, another festival has sprung out of the ground here in the Krakow city center.  It's in the main square this time, and after a little digging I found out that it's a festival of folk art.  Basically, it's a giant flea market of Polish goods.  There are all sorts of vendors, some selling cheap souvenir junk and others selling real handmade stuff.  There's even a blacksmith offering to put your name on your own lucky horseshoe!

One of the things I love about these festivals is that they have a very similar type of grill going at basically all of them.  Kielbasa, pork steak, shish kebabs (made entirely of pork cuts, bacon, and onion), pork tips, along with grilled vegetables, bigos, and sauteed mushrooms.  They provide a great way to get meat pretty much on demand, and with few side items if you don't want them.  Just imagine, especially you guys out there, being able to walk 5 minutes from your current place of residence and for under $4 USD get a stick of bacon, pork tips, and grilled onion.

Here's a picture of the general festival atmosphere from tonight:

 I'll do more exploring of this festival this weekend, as it runs through Sunday.

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Small Observances

It's gotten warm again.  The high today was about 90°F, which is OK in the air-conditioned office, but the apartment is quite warm.  The train was also above-average heat today.

As the faithful readers of this blog have likely figured out, during the week my life is pretty routine.  I'm fairly used to the pattern of getting on the train, going to work, and coming back.  Laurel, with more free time, was able to do more fun exploring and picture-taking.  This is not to say I'm not enjoying things, but rather that I have less large observations to share with you.  Instead, here are several smaller ones:

• I still enjoy hearing the hejnal from my open apartment window each hour.  For those of you that may have missed it, here's what that is (not my video):

• There is a ton of pork here, but not a lot of beef.  This is true in steaks, sausages, and deli meat.
• Almost any beer is made drinkable with the addition of some raspberry juice.
• Chocolate chip cookies (especially warm ones) are unknown in Poland.  Yes, Subway sells them, but that doesn't mean people buy them.
• Waffles (gofry) are served as a dessert here, and are awesome with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.
• Kebabs (we would call them gyros) are amazing and need to come to the US.  It's like a really cheap version of Chipotle, but in Mediterranean style.

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Polish Pilgrimage

Most of yesterday was uneventful.  I went again to the pirogi festival for lunch, which was excellent.  The variety of pirogi there is just amazing!  There are the traditional ones: meat, cottage cheese, cabbage, blueberry, etc., but there are also ones that I had never heard of.  Included in the latter category are kielbasa and potato, "Mexican" (beans, meat, onion, and some seasoning), chocolate and something (I don't know the word), salmon, duck, and others.  I could eat there every day for a week!

In the evening, my friend Aamri from Oman hosted a get-together at his apartment.  It was largely the same group as the language club, and thus I knew most of the people there.  At one, point, though, the conversation took an interesting turn.

Aamri is considering going to the nearby mountain town of Zakopane, and found a hiking group that was going to go on a 7-hour, 22.5 km hike.  That's longer than a half-marathon, and it's not at all flat.  As we were pondering how onerous this hike would be, one of the ladies from the group perked up and said that it wasn't much of a hike - she had hiked the entire north-south length of Poland (700 km).

This revelation caught me off-guard.  I thought, "Wow!  This must have been for some special charity event or athletic contest!"  I asked her about it, and she said this was not unusual.  There is a town in southern Poland where Poles pilgrimage, on foot, to in the summer.  From Kraków, it's about a 5-day walk, but from the north of Poland is more like 3 weeks.  People help them out along the way, since they're on a religious journey.

How could I have not heard of this?  To the internet!  It turns out, the town is named Częstochowa and the Poles pilgrimage there to see a famous painting called (in English) "Black Madonna of Częstochowa".  Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on it.  The Poles credit this painting with saving the monastery it was housed in during the Swedish invasion of the 17th century; it also marked the turning point in that war.

But wait, that bit sounded familiar to me.  Yes, sure enough, James Michener wrote about that story in his book Poland, which I'm reading through.  However, Mr. Michener neglected to mention some important items:

1. The painting has a Black Madonna, making it very distinct, and
2. Poles pilgrimage there to this day.

He mentioned the modern-day incarnation of the hejnal when he wrote about the invasion of the Tatars in 1241, why not this?  OK, enough of my literary critique - this was still completely unexpected.

Back at the party, the conversation went on and the moment quickly passed; this was not an unusual circumstance in the life of a Pole.  I've been here seven weeks now and things still surprise me.

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Re-entry

I am safely back at home in Fort Wayne now.  I landed right on time with no delays last evening.  That was at 8 PM; I was passed out by 9:30.  I'd like to write about some of my initial impressions coming back to the United States.  I started this post yesterday while I was traveling, though, so it kind of counts for both yesterday and today.

Title: A Very Long Day

As I write this, I am laid over in Chicago after an eight-and-a-half hour flight across the Atlantic and Canada.  It feels like it's about midnight, except it's only 5 o'clock here.  I'd really like to go to sleep, but I also need to reset my biological clock.  Hopefully, writing this blog post will help keep me awake.

First thoughts coming back into the U.S.:

1: I can understand 99% of what everyone around me is saying, mostly notably, side conversations.
2: I am cold, and it's because I'm inside.  Air conditioning in public buildings is back.  I'm really not a fan of A/C right now.
3: All signs here are in English.  It's strange to see the words "Men" and "Women" on the restroom doors again.  Additionally, although I appreciate other countries putting English descriptions on their signs along with their own language(s), now the signs seem so bare and simple.  We just don't think about putting other languages on our signs most of the time.  It makes me think we as a country may consider adding Spanish to more airport signage, if not other languages!  This just seems standard procedure for so many other countries.

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Here's My Take

I'm glad that Andy posted about yesterday (Thursday), but I also wrote my own account while I was on planes and in airports today.

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The puffin has flown

Laurel got on a train for the airport this morning at 8AM, and she's just entered Canadian airspace right now.  Since today has been kind of sad and boring for me, I thought I'd write a post about yesterday instead (like I promised her I would).  You'll hear from her again, though: I've asked her to make a post or two about re-entry into US life.

Thursday was a largely practical day for Laurel, although she did get to go to the peirogi festival for lunch and view the Sukiennice's art museum.  She also successfully mailed a large box o' stuff home, which was a multi-day process to figure out how to do.  We'll figure out if she got it right when it arrives in the US.

In the evening, we went back to her favorite restaurant in Krakow, la Campana Trattoria.  (Don't be afraid of the link; there's English, too.)  We made reservations this time, so we actually got to sit directly in the courtyard.  There was a jazz group starting to play as we walked in (which they had warned us about), but we were seated pleasantly far away.  The music was audible, but not overwhelming.  Also, the band was kind enough to play several songs in English and Spanish, including That's Amore and Corazon Espinado.  We ate a wonderful Italian meal under the Polish sunset, and departed just after dark.

Laurel also wanted to visit Wedel's chocolate store one last time in order to get some more banana crepes, which I also enjoy.  Puffer wanted to get in on the action as well:

How do they taste?  At the risk of knowing how awkward pictures of others eating can be, I took a picture of Laurel mid-bite in order to capture the unbridled happiness that is present in her face.

You can see the result.

With that, and one last gaze towards the lighted Sukkiennice, Laurel departed Rynek Główny for the final time.  However, I think she's definitely in the contest for "coolest summer vacation" this year.

And now, here are some miscellaneous video files from random points that should have been posted but haven't been.

An accordion trio in front of St. Mary's Basilica:

Two videos from our carriage ride through the old town:

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Polish Holiday

Yesterday was a holiday here in Krakow.  We think it celebrates two quite different occasions.  The first is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary; the second is a Polish army day celebrating the Battle of Warsaw in 1920.  This was also my last day off with Andy, so we wanted to have some fun.

We started out with a run around Błonia that went pretty well.  We got to go all the way around the park this time instead of just down one leg of it.  I knew I would get to see Wawel and the river again, so the park made more sense for my last run.

After we returned to the apartment and got cleaned up, we headed out and made a few errands, including taking a short stop into the Church of Peter and Paul.  The organ was playing when we came in, so we sat down and listened for a few minutes.  After our errands, we headed to the peirogi festival that was starting on Mały Rynek, the small market square on the other side of St. Mary's Basilica.  It was packed with people!  There were so many stands and kinds of pierogi to choose from.  We decided to try duck and salmon pierogi in addition to the more traditional meat and spinach varieties.  We also tried "dessert" pierogi.  These are strawberry- and blueberry-filled:

Andy edit: Laurel about melted when she tried the spinach pierogi.  I tried to get a picture of it, but she had consumed it all before I even got the camera out.

They were so good, we went back for more, including a banana-filled pierog.  (I was also pretty hungry from running.)

After our delicious lunch, we decided to head to a different mall than the one we normally pass through, one I hadn't been to.  This mall is farther away, so we took the tram down to the river.  When we walked to the mall door we realized the mall was closed for the holiday.

At this point, I was already tired from walking.  I felt like the run wore me out more than I expected, I was getting frustrated, and I just wanted to sit down.  Have you ever had one of those moments when you have the will to do something but not the energy?  That is where I was at this point.  I wondered if we could find one of the riverboat cruises since the mall wasn't working out, but that would involve a lot more walking along the river.  We decided the best thing was to go back to the apartment and rest for a while.

We went back to the tram stop (more walking).  Here we made an error: the tram we got on was not the tram line on which we came.  We saw a lot more of Krakow than we were intending.  Eventually, we got off mystery tram line #79 and found another one going more in the direction we needed.  This returned us to the familiar land of the Planty, from which we went back to the apartment, and I begrudgingly took a nap.  (Andy comment: sometimes it's like she's two.  She needed a nap, but didn't want to take one.)

When I was done resting, we headed out again.  One of our language club friends had invited us to her apartment later, and so we ate some tasty snacks and headed to Subway to get cookies to bring.  Earlier in the day, we stopped by and ordered a dozen chocolate chip cookies.  We told the workers we would be back at 4 o'clock to pick them up.  The workers must not have understood our English because when we arrived back at the Subway, they didn't have the cookies; they said they had sold them all earlier in the day.  Fortunately, they could make another dozen in about 20 minutes, so that's what we asked them to do.

WHY, you may ask, were we bringing chocolate chip cookies and so intent on it?  Chocolate chips aren't really around in Krakow.  Andy heard that they're at some of the suburban supermarkets, but they're not at any of the ones we go to in the downtown area.  Subway was the only restaurant we know where there are chocolate chip cookies. 

We then went over to our friend's (Roxana's) apartment (about a mile more walking, but snacks gave me more energy).  She and her fiance were welcoming, as any Polish host would be, and we had to explain why we had brought cookies.  See, the Poles aren't very used to chocolate chip cookies, and they're really, really not used to them being served warm.  We asked Roxana to use her oven, and heated the Subway cookies up for them to try.  I believe that action alone may have left a lasting mark on Polish culture.  I don't think her fiance will ever have cold cookies again.

We had a fun evening playing a board game called Puerto Rico in their backyard. 

We were sad to leave, but we wanted to return to the city center in time to take a ride in one of Rynek Główny's carriages.  I had been looking forward to this for a long time! 

Here's a video as we went by Wawel castle.  I love how beautiful it is at night!

We ended the day with more pierogi...all that running and walking made me very hungry.

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Schindler's Museum

Today I was successful in visiting the Oskar Schindler factory.  Along with the Rynek Underground Museum (see previous post), this is one of the newest museums in Kraków.  I was not sure what to expect entirely, because (condemn me if you will) I haven't seen the movie Schindler's List.  I did know he was a German associated with the Nazi party who decided to help some Jews.

So with that minimal background, I entered the world of a Kraków citizen in the 1930s and 1940s.  The museum is designed to immerse the visitor in the surroundings, with walls, floors, objects, sounds, and interactive screens that put you in the shoes of a typical citizen--sometimes a Jewish citizen.  There was so much to take in!  I learned lots, as always.  For example, when the Nazis established Kraków as the seat of one of their regional colonies, the Rynek Główny was renamed "Adolf Hitler Platz."  How disgusting!  Also, the governor of this region moved into Wawel castle and plundered all its cool treasures to Germany. 

And then there was the Jewish ghetto.  Jews were crammed in at first, and then the ghetto gradually shrank as more and more Jews were taken to concentration camps.  All in all, it seemed life under Nazi occupation was downright scary, no matter who you were.  You could be imprisoned and killed for just about anything.

This is a wall with the "list" of the people who Schindler saved by employing them in the factory.  Ironically, the factory made enamels and ammunition for the German army, but whatever gets you out of the concentration camps, right?  What really made these exhibits powerful were the videos of interviews with Jews who had actually worked there and endured arrests--and rescues from concentration camps like Dachau.  It is a great museum.

After going through the museum, I had lunch at the museum cafe.  I met some young people from Australia and New Zealand in the line!  We ended up sitting together and talking about different countries' accents and what we were doing in Poland.  Tangent topic: one Australian laid out the Kiwi accent like this: they mix up the "i" and "e" sounds.  So when they say "pen" it sounds like "pin" to us, and "pin" sounds like "pen".  This was like a eureka moment to me.  So that's what makes them sound so distinctive...

And tonight, Andy and I heard a lovely Chopin piano concert, followed by another excellent dinner, all in a Renaissance/Baroque palace next to Rynek Główny.  We were kind of expecting the dinner and concert to happen simultaneously, though, so we were a bit hungry and impatient once we got downstairs to the restaurant.  It was still delicious, though!

Tomorrow we get to have a day of fun together!  Yay for a holiday!

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The many meanings of "proszę"

It occurred to Laurel and I that there is one particular word which we hear an awful lot in Kraków: Proszę.  It's pronounced as "PRO-shem", we originally learned its translation as "please."  That's one of its meanings, but it's also used to mean any of the following (my translations):

• Please
• Excuse me / pardon me
• Next (as in, what a cashier would say to the person in front of a line)
• Here you go
• If I may

Also, proszę is often combined with "bardzo," which translates to "very."  At least, that's what I thought it meant.  Google Translate also gives the following for "bardzo":

• Very
• Greatly
• Pretty
• Badly
• Some
• Vastly
• Plenty
• Sorely
• Ever So
• Mightily
• Jolly

You can see why "bardzo proszę" must always be determined by context.  In isolation, this phrase (in addition to making no sense to a native English speaker - "very please", anyone?) can have a lot of different translations.  Yet, it's pretty easy to understand what someone wants when they use it.  They usually want to call you up to the cashier stand, or give you change, or take your plate, or something similar.  It's a wonderful example of how complex such an everyday phrase can be when taken to another language.

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This is so Ghetto!

It's sad, but we've started thinking about my going back home.  I will be flying on Friday.  Since we've both been out of the country for an extended period of time now, we wonder what reverse culture shock we're going to experience.  Last night, we talked about what will be strange to us: lightswitches?  prices?  driving a car?  having a yard?  Maybe most of all, the weather!  Although it's cool and dreary here, at least there's rain.

Let's not forget that we will also be able to communicate problem-free with just about anyone.  Last night at the English language meeting, Andy and I were talking with some Poles about learning English and learning Polish.  Both groups had some funny stories about what was hard about the others' language.  It was a great time for my last language club meeting.

Yesterday, I also made a trek to a new part of town.  I was on my way to visit the Oskar Schindler Factory museum, which is in the old Jewish ghetto.  Not the best part of town, but not too scary in daylight.   My tram stop was at one of the memorials I had read about.  The empty chairs represent those Jews who just "disappeared" during the Nazi occupation:

Puffer wanted to sit on one.

The way to the factory from here looks sketchy, but I just had to keep going and following the signs, and I found it pretty quickly. 

Unfortunately, I came all that way but wasn't able to visit the factory.  Why?  Because they only sell a finite number of tickets for entry each day, and they were sold out.  I was very disappointed.  This is a phenomenon I am not used to.  In the U.S., the vast majority of museums just keep letting people in throughout the day.  Unless it is a special exhibition where you buy a ticket for a particular entry time, there are no ticket limits.  Apparently it's different here.  This is the second time a museum has turned me/us away because they were sold out.  Granted, yesterday was also a "free admission" day at the Schindler Factory, but they sell a limited number of tickets no matter what day it is.  I bought a ticket for today, and I'm looking forward to actually seeing the museum later.

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Pod Rynek Główny (Under the Main Market Square)

Tonight we went back in time and underground to what Andy aptly described as a Discovery Channel special on Rynek Główny.  The Rynek Underground Museum is probably the newest museum in Kraków.  It was opened just a few years ago after the excavation of a newly discovered archaeological site.  Archaeologists uncovered the foundations of market stalls from the 13th century.  They were abutted against the foundation walls of the Sukiennice (the building in the center of the Rynek Główny).

There were multi-level buildings in Rynek before it was just a big open space like it is now.  The ruins the museum is built on were like basement stalls, with staircases leading down into them.  On top, there were two-story buildings with more stalls.  It was amazing to think that all of this existed hundreds of years ago.

Here is a photo of the excavation in 2005.

Some of the museum's exhibits were interactive, and many others had screens to read about subjects like trade and occupations.  We spent a lot of time absorbing information and marveling at the ruins.  It was like the museum in Barcelona again! (except newer)  One more touch that I found really amusing was the portraits of the kings hanging in one hall.  If you stood long enough looking at the "paintings," (which were LCD screens), the kings would move around or give you a funny look for a few seconds.  It was just like being in Hogwarts!

Edit:  I wanted to add that in this museum, we learned that the building we're living in was once part of the governor's mansion complex.  Pretty cool!

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McDonald's

Dual post day!

Today, Laurel and I had a late lunch and thus weren't very hungry for dinner.  We decided it was a good time to visit the McDonald's on Florianska street.  If this sounds atypical of us, here are a few reasons we went there:

• As previously mentioned, we weren't very hungry.  Thus, only minimal amounts of actual McDonald's food needed to be consumed.
• Visiting a foreign McDonald's is an interesting experience.  In many ways they're the same as the American ones, and in others they're different.  For example, the McFlurries were served with Wedel chocolate pieces.  Also, they translated "chicken" into Polish in one part of the menu, but still left it as "McChicken" in another.
• Laurel and I don't eat at McDonald's much, so it's a bit of an experience for us.  In fact, outside of a very brief stop in Madrid where we were desperate for wifi, we both can't remember the last time we went to one.  (In Madrid, we only ordered a smoothie, too.  The goal was wifi.)
• The patrons of McDonald's are different, too.  We thought it was particularly interesting that in our immediate area there were four children (three under 10 years old) and there was not one squeal, scream, or tantrum during the entire meal.  If I couldn't have seen them, I probably wouldn't have known they were there.  It's been awhile, but this is not the character of the average American McDonald's, last I knew.
• We had heard a rumor (thanks, JY!)  that their basement was cool.  Here's what it looks like:

Seriously, folks, this was the nicest McDonald's either of us can remember going to in...well...pretty much ever.  It was a cultural experience, I promise.

Also, I'd like to remind everyone of just how smart McDonald's is as a company.  As one of my coworkers said once (paraphrasing, and a tip of the hat to Greg), they run a printing press on potatoes.  This location had very thoughtful design.  There was artwork on the walls, mirrors to make the rooms look bigger, counters that could be used to put your stuff on or as additional seating if necessary, a courtyard with outdoor tables, and small trench of decorative stone separating patrons from the pointy stone rocks that line the walls.  Brilliant design, all of it.  Although I don't like McDonald's much, I have to respect their work.

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Are You Sure It's Not October?

Today we went to Wieliczka Salt Mine.  It was an excellent day to spend doing something inside, because it was rainy.  It was also 55° Fahrenheit most of the day today.  Yes, it's August, and it was 55°.  When Andy told me the weather forecast for today, I asked him if the projected high was for inside or outside the salt mine.  The salt mine was also chilly, though, so we had already prepared ourselves to wear jackets and long pants; it's just that we ended up wearing them all day. 

The foray to the salt mine generally went much more smoothly than my trip to Auschwitz.  I would say two things about the experience in general: it is really cool, and I would recommend it as something to see if you happen to be in Krakow; however, it really needs better signs to direct visitors to the right line for their tour.  When we arrived at the tents where the tours began, we couldn't even tell there was supposed to be a line.  As a result, we missed the rest of our tour group as they entered, and the staff almost didn't let us go in.  Thankfully, we had a sympathetic worker help us into the next English group right away.

The first step in getting into the mine is going down.  380 steps.  And that put us 64 meters (about 197 feet) below the surface, which is the "first floor" of the mine.  Throughout the journey, we continued going down periodically until we were 135 meters (about 416 feet) below the surface of the earth. 

We learned about many periods in the history of the mine.  The earliest discoveries of the salt deposits date back 6,000 years!  The mine itself was established in the 13th century.  Many famous people, including Copernicus and von Goethe, came to visit the mine over the centuries.  Nearly every chamber we visited had some sculpture made of rock salt to commemorate these events and people, or just to show what life as a mine worker would have been like.

There was even an interactive part where the children in the tour could work the pulley system that brought salt out of the mine, and wood and supplies in.  The wood is also an important part of the mine, because the salt preserves and eventually fossilizes it.  Thus, wood was used to reinforce the passages of the mine once an area had been exhausted.

The most impressive area was the underground church.

In some places, it felt like we had gone into the mines of Moria.  There were even dwarves.

I was equally impressed with the opportunities to use the bathroom and get a snack along the tour.  (It was over two hours long.)  After the tour, we went to the underground restaurant.  Andy and I are continually amazed at the reasonability of prices here, especially food.  We had a tasty hot meal for much less than a major tourist attraction would have charged for the same fare in the U.S.

Tonight for dinner, we couldn't find the place we first wanted to try; so we went to Jama Michalika, a restaurant that's been around for about 150 years.  Legend has it that all the poets, writers, and other famous artsy folk made this place their hangout at the beginning of the 20th century.  Dark wood and very tall ladder-back chairs made an atmosphere that felt formal but cozy at the same time, and we were serenaded by live piano music.  Again, the quality of food you get here for the prices is just amazing. 

We probably ate too much tonight, but at least we're going to the gym tomorrow.  We've gotta live while we're here, right?

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Day With a New Friend

Greetings, followers!  I had a wonderful day with a new friend today.  Her name is Paulina.  A mutual acquaintance from the language club introduced the two of us via text.  I had never met anyone via text messages before, but I think we got along very well from the start.  Paulina is from Mexico; but she was working in Germany and was in Krakow on holiday. 

Being with Paulina was another great opportunity to practice Spanish again.  She was very patient with my stumbling through sentences and searching for words, and she also spoke slowly to me in Spanish so it was easy to understand.  Thankfully, Paulina also speaks English well, so we could always revert to that when things got hard for me.

We traversed around Rynek Głowny, Wawel, and into Kazimierz.  This time around, I could show someone else a few things in the city.  Kind of a strange feeling.  But Paulina also had a couple things to show me.  For instance, in the Jewish district, she showed me a building where Jews lived during World War II.  I think they were Jews who worked in Schindler's factory.

I also had the challenge today of communicating with those who do not speak English.  I was looking for the post office to buy a shipping box.  I thought it was in the train station, Krakow Głowny, so Paulina and I went in to ask where it was.  The desk worker didn't understand "mail", "package," or "post office." She ended up giving us a tourist map.  We looked for help elsewhere.  Turns out the post office is a separate building nearby, whose worker also spoke zero English.  My transaction there was a strange combination of random words, gestures, and getting help from the guy behind me.  In the end, I was successful, and Paulina thought I did an excellent job.  Whew!

Later, Andy and I took Paulina to the language club meeting spot, where we met with our mutual contact, Roxana, and of course, a whole bunch of other great people.  After all that, I am very tired.  I think I'll go to sleep now.

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I Survived Auschwitz

And it really was a day full of challenges and discomfort.  However, the challenges did not so much come from experiencing the horrors that the prisoners endured in the concentration camp, but from the logistics of getting to and from Auschwitz.  The train ride to the town of Oświęcim (Polish word for Auschwitz) is about two hours long, so I had planned accordingly with the train schedule.  I was standing on the platform where the train was to leave, watching and waiting for the train to arrive.  After a few minutes, I heard movement behind me, and saw a train pulling away on the track on the other side of the platform.  I had missed my train standing right there next to it.  Thus began the first challenge of the day.  I felt like the biggest idiot that ever lived.  I had to take the next train--an hour and twenty minutes later.

Once I was finally on the train, I had to use the facilities.  Now, I really wasn't expecting much--something like an airplane or bus potty, but when I hit the flusher, a hole opened up in the bottom of the bowl which went right down onto the tracks!  I literally exclaimed, "You've got to be kidding me!" out loud.  I had just used a chamber pot.

When I arrived in Oświęcim, the next challenge was finding my way to the actual camp.  I ended up walking the roughly 2 km from the train station, but the locals' directions were dependable.  One thing I quickly realized after arriving at the main building was that my visit was not going to be an intimate, reflective journey through the concentration camp.  There were so many people!  Ironically, on many parts of the tour, I felt like the prisoners must have felt, jammed up against each other in small spaces and herded like cows.  Still, it was a sobering experience, especially through the torture and death barracks Block 11 and the gas chamber and crematorium.

 The infamous front gate which reads "Work Makes You Free."

 A can (in the back) which contained the pellets (in front) that reacted to form Cyklon B, the gas used to kill prisoners.

 Eyeglasses taken from the dead bodies.  There were so many personal articles taken from the people and "recycled" for various purposes.

 This is the wall were prisoners were lined up and shot in the head.

These are some of the ovens where the dead bodies were burned after the gas chambers.

Strangely, Auschwitz now is quite pretty; it has beautiful birch and willow trees and grass, and the buildings honestly don't look that menacing from the outside, with their red brick and peaked roofs.

We were not allowed to take pictures of a few things, but they are worth mentioning.  First, there was a room full of human hair cut from (mostly) women and to be used for making fabric.  I don't remember if they took the hair when the people were still alive or not.  Also, we saw the torture chambers were prisoners were starved to death and the standing cells.  These are tiny spaces, about 3 feet by 3 feet, where four prisoners were shoved in for many nights in a row.  They were unable to sit down or move.

I got a small taste of what that may have been like on my way back to Krakow.  I took a bus, because I didn't have enough time to get back to the train station, but they let so many people on the bus that I (and others) had to stand for the entire trip.  Was I ever happy to find Andy back at the main station!  I had survived.

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