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.

I had a great last day in Krakow.  I still had a list of things to do, but preparing to go back home was only part of my day.   mostly involving packing and getting the box of gifts sent.  THe first priority was putting the gifts we've bought in the mail.  As I've mentioned before, I was doing quite a bit of Christmas shopping in Poland.  It turned out that I bought a lot.  Now, I knew from when I started shopping that I would need to send a box of things home.  The box I sent yesterday  turned out to be 10 kg worth of stuff.  Hey, I'm not going overboard if I don't have to worry about shopping come November or December.  I think the people who saw me taking it down to the post office--including our cleaning lady--thought I was crazy.  Luckily, the post office wasn't far.  The bigger issue was figuring out how to fill out the Polish address form. With that done, the box is now (or will be soon) taking the same journey I am.

After that job was done, I headed back to the pierogi festival for lunch!  I wanted more of that delicious spinach pierogi I had on Wednesday.  I also tried a couple new kinds of pierogi.  It was also fun to hear some live music at the festival.  I walked by the festival more than once, so I came back to hear more music later in the day too.

I would have loved to stay there all day, but I had to get my suitcases packed too.

When I was packed as much as I could be, there was still time left for one more museum.  I decided the Sukiennice Art Museum was the perfect choice--very close and not too big.  The Sukiennice, the same building that houses souvenir stands on the ground and used to be the main market trading hall, has a Polish art museum on its top floor.  Polish art changed quite a bit from the end of the 18th century to the end of the 19th century.  There were lots of portraits and paintings of historical scenes.  Some of them were enormous, probably reaching about 20 feet wide.  Then, there was a gallery of later Romantic and Impressionistic works.  The most memorable painting there was called Szal, which means ecstasy in Polish.  It depicted a serene girl riding an uncontrollably wild black horse.  I thought this painting really captured the essence of its title.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenzy_of_Exultations  I also learned that Poland's most famous artist is Jan Matejko.  He painted historical Polish scenes, some of which were controversial.

When Andy got home, we got ready to go out and enjoy a special evening.  We made a repeat visit to La Campana Trattoria, where there was also a live jazz band booked for the evening, and had another wonderful dinner outside together.  We were thankful that the weather remained good throughout the day.  Finally, we made one more trip to E. Wedel's for dessert.  I needed another taste of the chocolate banana crepes.  I will miss Krakow, but I know I will miss Andy even more for these next seven weeks.