UK Day 3 - To Inverness!

The first part of my day was boring and consisted mostly of getting myself to the train station.  At this point, the hills of Edinburgh are a little annoying because I have to lug a suitcase up and down them in order to get to the train.  Oh well.  I would prefer to travel lighter, but this is a cross between vacation and moving home, so some additional weight is a necessary inconvenience.

On the train to Inverness I was seated in a group of four seats, two front-facing and two back-facing, with a table in the middle.  This is the sort of setup where conversation is inevitable if the languages allow.  The other three seats were filled in by a family going also to Inverness, where the mom is going to run in the marathon tomorrow.  They were very helpful to me, since they had race information packets on hand (received presumably by mail) and thus were able to get some of my questions answered.

Upon arrival in Inverness, I bid my traveling partners adieu and went in search of my hotel.  Booking a hotel in Inverness was not as easy as I had hoped.  Even though I booked it a month in advance, many of the locations were sold out by the time I had started my search.  I found a bed and breakfast that had a minimum two-night stay, and while expensive, thought it was basically my only option.  Fortunately they were flexible on that rule and let me stay for just the one night.

The Westbourne Guest House is a most accommodating place.  The proprietors have several awards for "best landlord" on the wall, and I can see why.  First, I have yet another room upgrade.  That's 3/3.  I'm currently in a room with two beds (one twin and one double) all to myself.  Secondly, the landlady (it's an older couple that owns it) apparently likes to bake and leave baked goods out for the guests.  The shortbread is great.  Third, apparently guests of age are welcome to take a nightcap of port or sherry in the evenings.  Fourth, they know they have runners in the place, so they're asking what time we all want breakfast (because it's earlier than they would usually make it).  This place is awesome.

I registered for the race (I had to go in person since I'm "overseas"), where they remarked that I was from Poland.  I corrected this, although I would have thought my accent would have given away that I'm not from Poland.  I then spent some time walking around Inverness, the local castle (now a courthouse), and browsing shops.  Photos below.

I got to meet up with my friend Quartney and her boyfriend Sagar and their friend Amy here.  We went to a Turkish restaurant for dinner, which was good but a little slow on the service.

Scottish, thus far, has not proved as challenging to navigate as I had originally feared.  Maybe the locals are just being kind to me.

I've got to sleep now in order to have some energy for the 10k race tomorrow!

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UK Day 2 - Edinburgh

This morning started out with a few surprises for me.  First, I knew the hotel was providing free breakfast.  I was expecting what happens in every other hotel when they say "free breakfast" - a buffet line with various dishes.  Nope.  Instead, they had a couple young ladies who took orders. That was fun, and I noticed that they had a familiar accent.  I asked, and one was from Romania and the other from Poland.  I gave the Polish girl a surprise when I said "dzien dobry!"

I got out of my hotel a little earlier than I had expected, so I had some more time to explore before reaching the castle.  My hotel is halfway down a hill (Calton hill, specifically), and the main part of the city is up-and-over the hill.  I thought about trying out that journey last night, but it was getting dark and I didn't want to try it.  This morning, however, was a great time to explore.  I started up the hill looking rather silly with my umbrella on this beautiful sunny Scottish morning.

At the crest of the hill, there were great views of the city.  Here are a couple shots to give you an idea.

I also found a monument to Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson.  It looked interesting, so I also took some photos of it.  At the time I didn't realize it, but that monument was going to become more interesting as I reached the castle.

I have to say that I was really tempted to forget about all my pre-booked tickets and just go climb up the massive chunk of rock protruding from Holyrood park.  Not the peak known as Arthur's Seat, but rather the closer, jutting rock that forms a backdrop to the city for anyone looking to the east.  I decided against it on the grounds that I need to run 10k in 2 days.  I also have no idea how long it would take, but I'm guessing at least an hour to get to the base and an hour to get up it.  Here's one of the pictures of this thing.

Instead, I proceeded along my planned route towards Edinburgh Castle.  The castle is really nice and has a lot to explore.  I was a little put off by the £16 entrance fee I pre-booked, but it turned out to be a good deal because once inside they let you in to everything.  This is a contrast to Poland, where Wawel castle is more pay-as-you-go.  I got to see castle defenses, museums on Scottish regiments, prison conditions (some of which housed soldiers from the Revolutionary War), and a wonderful example of medieval cannonry.  For my computer-gaming friends out there, this is the medieval equivalent of the BFG.  My foot is in the picture for perspective to the cannonballs.  Also, it's now raining at this point in my journey, so I feel vindicated for carrying the umbrella in the earlier sunlight.

I should also explain where Nelson's monument comes in to play here. It turns out that ships in Edinburgh's harbor needed a really reliable time signal to set their chronometers.  The chronometers in the castle (on nice, stable ground) could be easily calibrated at noon.  Therefore, at 1PM, the castle fires a shot from a cannon.  (You can't fire it at noon because you're busy setting your watch when you should be shooting the gun.)  That's all fine and dandy, except that sound takes awhile to reach some of the far parts of the harbor.  This delay apparently caused enough of a problem that they needed to institute a fix for it.  The speed of light is faster than the speed of sound, so they set up a visual representation of the time change: on the top of Nelson's monument is a time-ball.  Think of Times Square at New Year's with a lot less pomp and flashy lights.  Each day about 12:55, this stone ball rises to the top of a spire on Nelson's monument.  Then, at 1PM, the same electrical signal that fires the gun tells the ball to fall.  They happen essentially at the same time.  Ships in the harbor can see this easily with a telescope, since it's at the top of a hill, so that's how they can set their chronometers.  Of course, if it's foggy, you just have to adjust for the delay and get on with sailing.  I have some pictures here of the process.  Pardon the post-cannon shot - the blast startled me a bit.

After the castle, I decided to investigate another monument along the Edinburgh skyline.  Having no idea what it was, I went there and found it to be a monument to Sir Walter Scott.  I was thinking it was a church or something because of the gigantic gothic spire protruding from it.  Nope - it's a monument to a writer.  Furthermore, for £3 they'll let you climb the 287 steps to the top in order to take photos.  Anyone who has walked up stairs or the side of a Polish mountain with me knows inclines don't bother me much, so this was a nice little deal!  I have lots of pictures of the city from up top of the monument, but this is one to give an example:

I also love to take straight-down shots from these sorts of places.

Tomorrow it's on to Inverness!

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On to Scotland!

Written earlier today

I usually write my blog posts in the evening after the day has mostly finished, but I'm currently writing from on board a train bound for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Surprisingly, there is wifi on this train, although I don't intend on using it much.  The first-class passengers receive it free, and the coach passengers still get 15 minutes free, but then us peasants have to pay for more than 15 minutes.  One very nice bit of information, though, is that on the sign-in screen they display the current location and speed of the train.  I can proudly report I'm moving north at 110 MPH.  Also, I've seen some items that look surprisingly like home.  For example, we've passed by several fields of wind turbines out on farms, which is strangely reminicent of US 30 in Ohio.  Then there are other things that are not so normal, like children playing soccer and cars on the other side of the road.

One of the most dramatic parts of the train ride happened when I looked up, looked to my right (east), and saw the ocean.  I knew I would be traveling north along the eastern coast of Britain, but I just wasn't quite expecting to see the ocean until I reach Brighton next week.  There was a pretty little coastal town with weather-worn houses lined up along the hilly background, and then the ocean behind it.  It looked like something out of, well, New England to me.

British pounds look weird to me.  The notes are not completely unique, unlike most US notes which look relatively uniform from one to another.  Also, I've heard that Scotland has some different notes, maybe a £2 or £1 note that isn't present (although still legal) in the southern part of the island.

I'll arrive in Edinburgh after most tourist attractions have closed; my primary goal is to find the hotel, get checked in, and explore the area a little.  I'm staying two nights, so Friday will be my primary day of sightseeing in Edinburgh.  I've learned that there is a "royal mile" from the nearby Edinburgh Castle to another palace about a mile to the east.  I've booked a ticket for the castle and a whiskey tour on that street between the two.  I figure if I can find that area, I should be pretty good to go.

It's still weird to think that I'm not in Poland.  Don't get me wrong, the signs are all here - everything is in English, I can understand people, prices are higher, scenery is a bit different (I've seen many sheep so far today).  I guess what may be the weird thing is to think I'm not going back to Poland.  I've spent three months trying to acclimate myself to Kraków, and it was getting to be pretty "normal" by the end.  I was still a foreigner with language problems, but I basically knew how to get myself to work, feed myself, have some fun, and where a good variety of shops were.  I know it's not really home, but it was getting to be a close imitation  with the notable difference being Laurel's absence.

Written this evening

The actual arrival in Edinburgh was pretty uneventful.  Once some tourist-info-people pointed me in the right direction, I was able to find the hotel easily.  I was surprised to find that I am now 2/2 on unexpected hotel upgrades in the UK.  Let's hope this trend continues!  However, my room is on the top floor of a no-elevator building, so getting to it was an unexpected exercise.  Also, the free wifi is spotty, so we'll see how uploading pictures goes.

The room has a view of the ocean.  Don't get me wrong; the ocean is probably a good 1-2 miles away, but the hotel is up on a hill and I can see it pretty clearly.  I'll try to get a picture in the daylight; it was cloudy and near sunset when I arrived so a picture wouldn't have been very clear.

I got to explore the Royal Mile a little bit.  Shops seem to close surprisingly early here.  Starbucks closes before 9PM, for example.  I did hike around a bit and find the Scottish Parliament, though.  I managed to get a picture of it in spite of some teenagers apparently filming a nighttime skateboarding video around the building.

Tomorrow - Scottish breakfast and then the castle!

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Poland Departure and UK Arrival

Although Wednesday was my last official day in Poland, it was pretty much going to work and then waiting for the plane to take off.  My group at work got me a t-shirt, though, and that was unexpected and sweet of them.  Other than that, the day was pretty typical.

My last night in the city center of Kraków, on the other hand, was Tuesday evening.  I had dinner with John at the Sukiennice terrace restaurant on this clear, barely-autumn evening. The terrace restaurant provides a great view of the eastern half of the main square.  It's so good that during the day they charge a cover, otherwise it would be overrun with tourist-photographers.  During the evening, though, it hardly seems like anyone knows about it.

After awhile, John's sister-in-law Ewa and cousin-in-law Karolina joined us at the restaurant, where I was able to get this picture of the four of us together.

I flew Ryanair to Stansted airport (28 miles north of London) at 10PM on Wednesday.  Ryanair is a low-budget Irish airline known for advertising stunningly low fares and then giving you every fee known to mankind in order to get the ticket up to what it should actually cost.  They would be great for weekend trips around Europe.  I got away with only one fee (a checked bag, but within the weight limit), and so my fare, in total, is still pretty good.  However, one cannot, say, reserve a seat without paying a fee for it.  Thus, you just get on the plane and find a seat.  Also, forget about anything free during the flight.

On Facebook, I posted that "flying on Ryanair is like browsing the internet without a pop-up blocker."  If you've flown on this airline, you know exactly what I mean.  If not, let me explain:

• The inside of Ryanair's plane had many advertisements.  The overhead bins were covered with ads for a visit to Rome and the drink cart.
• When I first boarded the plane, I was surprised to hear one of the Brandenburg concertos playing over the speaker.  Then, periodically, the nice music was interrupted for an announcement, usually regarding the upcoming drink cart service.
• There wasn't just a (pay) drink cart offered during the flight.  In-flight sales pitches for food and drink, perfume/aftershave, and scratch-off lottery tickets all happened for roughly the first 75 minutes of the flight.
• The landing was immediately followed by (loud) trumpets and an advertisement explaining why Ryanair was awesome and you should never fly with anyone else.  Sure.

You could tell the flight crew had basically been beaten into submission of all this shameless advertising.  I mean, they have a captive audience that just saved a bunch of money on their fare, surely they want to buy some scratch-off tickets whilst flying.  I will never complain about Delta's SkyMall again.

Also, the seats were very, very cramped.  For my shorter friends, this would have been fine, but there was basically no way for me to sit without my knees hitting the seat in front of me.  Fortunately, the seats do not recline.  I expected this flight to be less-than-fun, but it came out pretty well, actually.  I was still happy to stand up after two hours.

As I was walking into the UK airport, I kept thinking, "it's in English!  All the signs are in (only) English!"  Then I was introduced to a very important British word: queue.  The queue (line) for the immigration was painfully long.  It was also like 12:30 AM for me, so that made it seem longer.  I got through, despite filling out a couple lines incorrectly on the form, and the immigration agent was very pleasant and helpful for it being almost midnight.  I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm making up that I'm an actuary, though.

I stayed overnight at the Radisson Blu hotel attached to the Stansted airport.  Although it's slightly (~$20) more than other hotels in the area, I knew I would be dead and need to basically fall over into a bed.  Radisson may have actually given up on my coming there, as it appears they gave away all of the type of room I booked.  Then, they became awesome, because they upgraded me to a suite for no cost. I basically have two rooms to myself.  Here are some pictures (sorry for the mess).

Radisson wins.  I'm impressed.  I owe them another stay at one of their other hotels.

Today is mostly a travel day.  I have a late-morning train which takes almost six hours to get up to Edinburgh (pronounced "Edinburough"), and I'll arrive there a little after 5PM.  

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Last Sunday in Kraków

Today is my last weekend day in Kraków.  It's hard to believe that time has gone this fast!

I decided that I should go and see a Kraków landmark I had yet to see here: Nowa Huta ("Noh-vah Hoo-tah").  The name translates to "New Steelworks."  It was a planned community by the Soviets when they were in control of Poland.  I'm getting most of the following information from the Wikipedia article on it, but it's an interesting story all the way around.

The Soviets were having trouble with Kraków, which had a healthy middle class, so they decided to bring up a large working class in a huge, planned, industrial suburb.  That was Nowa Huta's goal, anyway.  The choice of putting a steelworks (the largest in Poland, I believe) here is also interesting, considering there isn't really any iron ore nearby.

The first stop, therefore, was this steelworks.  Well, at least its sign.  Here we are with some pictures of it.  My friend John came with me through this trip, and you can see him in the first of the photos.

The town of Nowa Huta is planned in a grid-spoke pattern around a central square.  (At one time, later, that square was named "Ronald Regan Square.")  One item the Soviets did not plan for, not surprisingly, was a church.  Eventually there were protests, I think someone died, and a guy by the name of Bishop Karol Wojtyla got enough support to build one.  Never heard of the guy?  I think you might have.  He later took on the name (in English) John Paul II.

The church he built is called Arka Pana ("Ark of the Lord") and is loosely modeled after Noah's Ark.  I got some photos of it, but because they were having service inside I didn't venture inside the actual church.  I think a few tourists were sneaking in, but I hate doing that.

Also, randomly, on the way between the steelworks and the Arka Pana, we found a house with chickens in the yard.  It was worth a picture.

The ironic thing about Nowa Huta is that it backfired on the Soviets.  Everything about that community was designed to bring classes into balance and emphasize communist life.  Instead, it became a stronghold of the Solidarity movement in later years, which basically freed Poland from Soviet control.

The rest of the day wasn't too exciting.  John and I each got to chat with the ladies in our lives, then we went in search of some kielbasa.  Although we didn't find the glorious kielbasa van, we did eventually find a good meaty dinner appropriate for my last weekend night in Poland.

In the coming few days I may not post a lot.  I leave Kraków for a UK vacation on Wednesday, so I'll post summaries of how that is going when I have time to do so.  The summer has already officially ended, but A Summer in Krakow isn't quite done yet.  Almost, but not yet.

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Post office and Pigeons

This morning my first stop was the Poczta Poslka, or Polish post office, in order to ship some items home.  Let me explain a little.  When I came to Kraków, I brought two suitcases.  Basically, one was for work clothes and one for non-work clothes.  There were also other items, of course, and some of those are now consumed while I've picked up other items along the way.  Next week finishes up my assignment here, and I'm going on a tour of the British island.  Rather than take two suitcases and a backpack all around Britain, it seems much easier to me to just send my stuff back ahead of me.

I was fortunate to have a cashier that spoke a few words of English.  I had already obtained the forms needed and gotten some of my coworkers to help me fill them out, so most of the process was just weighing the things, sealing them up, and getting them on their way.  One slight oddity was that I was shipping a suitcase home and she was insistent on putting tape over all of the zippers.  Not just the zipper-pull part, but the entire zipper around the suitcase.  I think that's unlikely to survive the journey, but is also unnecessary.

The box I shipped economy and the suitcase priority.  We'll see how long they take.  Laurel's box that was shipped home priority arrived in 8 days, where they promised 6.  That's not too bad, and I'd be happy if my suitcase beats me to the office in 16 days.  The economy package, on the other hand, may be more of a gamble.  There's nothing too time-sensitive in there (mostly Christmas gifts), but it will be interesting to see how long it actually takes.

After going to the post office, I decided to run.  Normally I would go and lift today instead of running, but with a race about a week out I decided to focus on cardio.  It was about 45F and cloudy when I left, and about halfway into my run it started raining.  Not great weather, but I pressed on calling it training for Scotland.

After lunch, I went to see the town hall tower in the main square.  Laurel has already posted about this landmark, but I hadn't had a chance to see it yet.  Since my time in Kraków is wearing thin, I thought I should go ahead and see it while I had time.  Here are some photos, remarkably similar to Laurel's.  I did manage to get a picture of the stairway to the town hall tower, though, which was steep to go up but scary to go down.

After crossing the town hall tower off of my to do list, I decided to work with another goal of mine: catch a pigeon.  OK, maybe not fully catch it, but at least have it land on me.  I had seen some other Poles doing this in the main square, so I bought a pretzel and followed their model.  I think this is the most fun I've had with 50 cents since childhood.  The pigeon in the first photo was very confused as to what the camera was.

Yes, I immediately went home and washed my hands.  I got only lightly pooped on, so the jacket just needed a light cleaning.

At 4:00 PM today, I met my friend, coworker, and replacement here in Poland, John.  I spared him the photos because he had just flown in from the US, and it seemed like a bad time for pictures.  Still, we were able to get him some items he needed and I got to show him the apartment.  Tomorrow we'll hang out more and I'll see if I can get a picture or two at that time.

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The Countdown Begins

10 days left.  It hardly seems possibly that time has flown this quickly.  Although I still have enough time to resemble a fully-fledged American vacation, I have to start thinking about departure.  There's a box in the apartment to remind me that packing (and shipping) will soon become a necessity.  Of course, I still get to roam around Britain for a bit after leaving Poland, but it's going to be a lot different than my usual habits now.

Today I went to the gym, as usual for a weekend.  Lunch was quick, and there was a trip to the grocery in the afternoon.  One note about lunch: I had a kebab, which is usually prepared by a middle-eastern guy, as was the case for me.  As usual, I asked if he spoke English in Polish, and he responded of course.  I then got a mini-lecture that I can just start talking in English to whatever kebab person there is, because they all speak English better than Polish.  Fun times.

For dinner I went down to Kazimierz and found a nice Indian restaurant, where they had some decently-spicy food.  Spicy food is uncommon here in Poland.  Although a lot of the food has spices in it, they're usually mild and not overpowering.  Having something spicy was different and kind of nice.

I then went to a nice dessert place in the main square that was delightful.  There was a jazz band playing across the way at another cafe, and it was great to be able to sit outside on a cool summer evening listening to the music play.  I will miss this when back in the US, especially on cold, winter nights where I'm trying to fit in a visit to the gym alongside 1-1.5 hours of studying.

One humorous anecdote: the city of Krakow is named after an ancient king / semi-mythological figure named Krak or Krakus, who supposedly founded the settlement on Wawel hill below which lived Smok the dragon.  Consequently, you see businesses such as "Krak tours" or "Krak computers."  I've gotten used to this phenomenon, but I had to stop and take a picture of this one:

Needless to say, I wouldn't trust such a brokerage.

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Errands, Shopping, and Ferris Wheel

Today the first part of the day was spent getting a few errands run.  One fun part about it was that I was able to find shoes in my size.  Let me explain a little: I wear size 12.5 in the US.  The problem is that starting at size 12, US shoes usually only go in integer sizes.  It's been a long, long time since I've actually had shoes in my exact size.  They'll probably feel tight on the first few runs, but I think it'll be fine after they get a little usage.

After this was a trip to the post office to figure out shipping some stuff home to the US.  This would have been a pretty difficult task had it not been for my bilingual friend Sarah, who was providing interpretation services for me.  I don't know how long it would have taken to negotiate that without a Polish speaker!

The next stop was by the main square, where there was more-or-less a flea market taking place in one corner.  Now flea markets are interesting in the US, but they are even more interesting here in Poland.  There was a good deal of Soviet paraphernalia, as well as a lot of interesting old Polish stuff.  I even saw an Elvis record (no idea how it got here).  Here are some photos of the scenery:

I also got to see Sarah's kittens again today.  They've gotten bigger, but they're still plenty small.  Pardon the blurriness; they don't exactly hold still very long.

Then, I finally got to ride on the Ferris wheel that is along the south bank of the Vistula river, just past Wawel castle.  Sarah got to face her fear of heights.  We had different reactions to this event, but I think in the end both of us were glad we went.  In that first picture Sarah is flailing around quite a bit.

It's hard to believe I only have 11 days left in Poland.

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Bell Tower and Basement of Wawel

Today I went back to Wawel hill in order to see some of the items I hadn't gotten to see the first time.  First, there were the state rooms, which unfortunately did not allow for photography.  These were the various rooms of the castle that were for governors, senators, etc.  There were several huge tapestries of various biblical scenes, principally belonging to the book of Genesis.  Although faded, they were still quite impressive.

I also got to explore the bell tower and crypts of Wawel cathedral.  The bell tower has a narrow, steep staircase leading up to it and is in no way handicap accessible.  You actually pass several bells on the way up and down (different routes, thankfully).  The largest bell is the Sigmund bell, which is pictured below, along with its statistics.

In the crypts, there were two fellows who I specifically wanted to see.  The first was Jan Sobieski III.  You can read more about him on his Wiki page, but he basically rode out with the Polish army to save Europe from a Turkish conquest by defeating them in front of Vienna.  Austria repaid this favor by taking over some of Poland roughly 90 years later.  His crypt is this one, and I think his wife is in there, too:

The second fellow I wanted to see was Tadeusz Kościuszko.  You may recall my earlier post about Kościuszko mound.  Considering this Pole is both a Polish and American hero, I thought it was important to see him.  It turns out that in 1977, the US Congress sent a plaque to Poland in order to commemorate the help Kościuszko gave to the US during the Revolutionary War.  The plaque is below, along with his crypt.

Later, I also went to a recommended English-language bookstore in Krakow, Massolit.  It was really, really nice to go to a store and everything around me, including the customer service, was in English.  I can get along with most basic transactions in Polish, but it's just reassuring to see it in your native tongue.  The grocery store, for example, is difficult for me.  Is this the same product with a different label, or is it something different?  When Laurel was here, for example, we made the mistake of buying some fermented milk because we couldn't read the label.  I like adventures, but I generally prefer my grocery stores without them.

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Polish Post Revisited

I write this to mark the long-awaited arrival of the box-o-stuff at home in Fort Wayne.  I went to pick up the box from Andy's Fort Wayne office yesterday and brought it home.  It had actually arrived at the office about 2 weeks earlier, but yesterday was the soonest I could be back in Fort Wayne during business hours to retrieve it.

There was some concern that the box was damaged, but when I saw it, I was relieved that it was confined to the tape coming loose on one top edge.  Thank goodness!  Here is the box safe and sound (finally!) at home:

Opening the box was like delving into a time capsule.  Things I have been separated from for weeks now suddenly came flooding back.  Here's the gift for Mom; and here's one for Jan and Rob; and one for friends--it was like opening a box of happy memories.  The best part was that NOTHING was broken beyond cursory damage.  All the important things were in one piece!  Praise God!  The homemade blueberry preserves (which my family helped indulge in today) are a great example of victory:

I am very tired after another busy day; life is going nonstop right now as I continue to manage full-time graduate studies and two residences.  Off to bed.

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Kielbasa Man!

Today has been a slower-than-usual Saturday for me.  I haven't felt well for most of the day, so I've been taking it easy and not exploring as much.  It was mostly concentrated in the morning, so by afternoon I was feeling more up for adventures.

One of my coworkers recommended to me that I go in search of a mysterious kielbasa vendor working primarily out of a van.  The location wasn't very far from the apartment, so I was up for the challenge of finding it.  Sarah, my bilingual friend here in Krakow, was also up for the challenge and so we went in search of this kielbasa man in a van.  We found him!

Afterwards, I felt like relaxing on the Sukiennice terrace.  Sarah had never been there, and it's really a delightful cafe to just sit back and enjoy the bustle of the main square from above.  The views are simply amazing; it's very easy to get great night shots of the East side of the main square.  Also, now that there's a bit of a chill in the air, they have blankets out for patrons to enjoy, as demonstrated below.

These views are literally 5 minutes from my apartment, and the cafe is not pressured and not terribly expensive.  I will miss this when I return home.  It is hard to believe the time has gone so quickly.  Although I have more than two weeks remaining, it seems like the summer is running out of time very, very fast.

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And the week goes on

This week has taken a definite turn for autumn, although I hear it's only temporary.  Temperatures this morning were in the low 50s, and it's probably going to be a chilly run tomorrow morning.  The daylight is also shortening quite rapidly.  Sunrise is at 6:09 and sunset at 7:07 now, but I guess that's just a slight bit different than home's 7:17 rise and 8:00 set.  It just feels darker when I wake up, especially on cloudy days.  Maybe that's just me refusing to realize how long I've been here.

Very little of note has happened in the past few days.  I did learn today an interesting fact about Polish banking: they have no checks.  None.  Their banking system developed in the late 1980s without them, and then came online banking shortly thereafter.  Wages were paid in cash before direct deposit.  Transfers of money can be done with a Western Union-like service at the post office.  They're completely skipping the paper check phase of banking.  

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Of Hounds and Mounds

Today was cloudy, but much less rainy.  In the morning, I went to a parade of Dachsunds.  The dogs were paraded from the Barbican to the main square, and about 60% of them were dressed in various small costumes.  It was part of a larger event hosted by a local radio station, and there was even a small marching band there.

The event was much larger than I had expected, with the pre-parade crowd taking up much of the space between the Barbican and St. Florian's gate.  People outnumbered dogs by about 10:1, by my estimate.  Two news stations were there with cameras and reporters holding funny-looking microphones.  It was much easier to get pictures before the event than after it, as the dogs are short and people are tall, so taking pictures during the parade is difficult.  Here are some shots I got at the event, plus a video of the first part of the parade.  The band is playing Pink Panther, by the way.

There were other festivities and contests in the main square following the parade, but since they were all in Polish they didn't interest me much.

I then proceeded towards Kościuszko mound.  This may take some explaining.

First of all, let's talk language.  I recognize that there is a Kosciuszko county back in Indiana, which we say "kosk-ee-OS-ko".  However, Polish doesn't quite work like that.  Here, it's "kosh-CHEEOO-shko".  I recognize the difference, must like the difference in Notre Dame between France and Indiana.  However, since I'm in Poland, I have to watch the pronunciation.  (Bonus pronunciation lesson: the seat of Kosciuszko county is Warsaw.  Polish pronunciation of Warsaw?  "var-SHA-va"  They also spell it differently, with an "a" on the end most of the time.)  I may bring the native pronunciation back to Indiana to mess with a certain friend of mine working in that county, though.

Now, what's this about a mound?  Kraków has some ancient mounds, sort of like the ones in the US.  They decided to build another one to honor Kościuszko, who is a national hero here.  He was also a general in the American war of independence, as you'll see evidence of later.  Kościuszko is not actually buried here; he's in Wawel cathedral.  However, this is a giant monument to him.  I've also heard that on July 4, the US consulate flies an American flag and Polish flag together on the top of the mound.  Sadly, I wasn't actually aware of this on July 4, or I would have looked for it.

The mound is a bit of a walk from the old town - roughly 2 miles.  You kind of need to know where you're going.  I started out along a busy road, although there were sidewalks, and eventually turned on to a much more residential street.  The steady stream of people coming in both directions told me that I was probably headed in the right direction.  Eventually I reached the foot of the mound, climbed it, and acquired the following photos.  Please forgive the haziness; as previously mentioned, it's a cloudy day.

They also had some small museum exhibits which were included with the price of admission.  I found the following to be particularly nice:

That's a picture of the US Declaration of Independence, in English.  I'm sure it's a copy, but it's nice to see it.  The wood thing is a fragment of the USS Constitution.  Having been on board the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor before, I thought it was a fitting thing to take a picture of her here.  The plaque on it is in English as well, so I'm guessing it was put on there in the US.

That guy in the middle of the three figures?  That's George Washington.  A little different than we make him look, huh?

After climbing down the mound and going through the museums, I decided to head back.  This is where things took a turn for the adventurous.  I knew from Google Maps that there were actually two ways to get to the mound; one was with larger roads that seemed easier but longer, and the other was with smaller roads that had more turns.  I decided to try to find the second one, figuring that it's easier to find my way home than to find my way to somewhere I've never been before.

I only have a vague idea of where I went from here.  It was a paved path for foot traffic, and there were plenty of people on it.  Some were dressed for exercise, but most were dressed with normal clothes, even dress clothes.  I figured that surely this must be a short walk to some main road.  Not exactly.  After about 20-30 minutes of walking, I asked some young-looking (and therefore English-speaking) bicyclists where on earth we were.  They responded in broken English that we were in Wolski forest, and directed me to the nearest main road and bus stop.

I faithfully followed their instructions and found the bus stop, which was serviced by exactly one line.  Looking at the bus route, I saw that it went to Cracovia's stadium in Błonia, which I know where is.  My fortunes further improved when the bus arrived about 1 minute after I arrived at the stop.  From there it was a 1 mile mile walk home or so. Having now returned to the wonderful world of internet, I can see that I wasn't actually that far away from where I thought I was; I just had no idea of it at the time.  The bus was the ideal solution home.

Final thought which I forgot to mention: on the way to the mound, I encountered this vehicle, which made me start laughing while getting out my camera.

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