Fun Things and Festivals

As this week started, I really felt like I needed to plan my free time carefully for the remainder of my time in Kraków.  I still have five weeks left here, but I know they will slip away more quickly than I'd like unless I did some thinking about what events I wanted to attend and the sights I wanted to see.  So, Monday I started looking into one experience I think would be fun: doing a cruise on the Vistula River.  Laugh if you will; I'm aware this is a terribly touristy thing to do, but I'm a tourist, right?  Sort of?

The other series of events going on right now is the Jewish Culture Festival.  Yesterday, I went down to Kazimierz (the old Jewish Quarter) to check out a free speaking event which was part of the festivities.  The speaker was Dovid Tsap, the "skateboarding rabbi" from Melbourne, Australia.  He shared a very insightful account of how he intertwines his faith with skateboarding.  Calling on the Chabbalah aspects of his beliefs, Rabbi Tsap related how he sees skateboarding as a way to experience God.  He also showed, with various newspaper and magazine articles in which he was featured, how his rather unique set of characteristics gained him international media attention. He said this widespread interest in his unusual pastime helped him realize how he could use skateboarding as a way to share his Jewish faith.

Here is a video of him showing off some of his skillz!

 

 
 Puffer wanted to try out the skate ramp too.

A majority of the Jewish Cultural Festival events, which include concerts, workshops, and lectures, require an admission fee, and unfortunately this limits the things I can be interested in.  For example, a ticket to one of the concerts costs 70 złoty, or around $30.  Still not sure whether we will enjoy traditional Jewish music enough to warrant this cost.