So yes...through my school's ISC (international student club)...I got the opportunity to go to Krakow over the weekend. We left thursday night, and got back early monday morning...quite early. But I'll get to all that later. 40ish people went on the trip all together...15 from my school, 25 from another school in Prague...and 2 people from my international student club. We were all on one train car...on a 9 hour train ride to Krakow.... god that blew.... Well it was OK in the fact that I met some new people...but blew in the fact that I had to try and sleep on the train, which was not comfortable. I was in a sleeping room with 5 other guys, which was only slightly akward. (I actually spent most of this weekend being the only girl in a group of guys...im not sure if thats good or bad...(Sidebar: anyone have any ideas on that? its not that im trying to do these things....I just always find myself being one of the only girls talking to certain groups of guys). So after only getting about 4 hours of sleep...we arrived in Krakow at like 7 in the morning.
This is from the front of the bus station as we were leaving Krakow Sunday night...I got a blurry picture when we got there on Friday.After we all get off the train we walked to our hostel. Because there were so many of us...we stayed in separate hostels. More or less, one school stayed in one hostel, and the other one in the other hostel. I was in the one called the Krakow Hostel, and in a room with 20 beds. It's the biggest room I've stayed in yet!
This is a sign from the front of our hostel...on the first floor of it was a tiny restaurant...and outside of the restaurant...they had this sign: its a list of 20 different types of perogis... I did not know there were 20 different types (i actually did not eat here...but the sign proverbially blew me away...and gave me a jonesing for perogi...)After that...we went on a 2 hour tour of Krakow...(well...we only saw the older part...but still...we saw a lot)
The pigeons in Krakow are numerous (like more than I have seen on Devon Avenue in Chicago)...and friendly...WAAY to friendly...they dont move even when you are like 6 inches away from them. I have another picture a bunch are surrounding three little kids....and they were feeding them.
The first of many occurances of JP2 that I saw while in Krakow...hes a real big deal here. Possibly because he went to school in Krakow...or because he was bishop of Krakow for a while...you know. This was was a small relief sculpture outside of one of many churches in Krakow... I think that Krakow is called the Rome of the North...or something like that.
Inside of one church...lets say its Catholic. It was beautiful. All the ones we went into were (i think we visited 3 or 4 on the tour...but could not take pictures at the last one. it was in the Wawel
Possibly JP2... keeping his pope hands strong! Or going in for a hug. The world will never know...
An image of JP2 in a window of a think a monastery. JP2 would stay there every time he came back to visit Krakow...and would stand outside that window to talk to the young people who would crowd outside.... I guess he would hold a dialogue of sorts...I dunno...I heard all this during our city tour.
This actually isnt the image i thought it was. I have a picture of Our lady of Czestahowa ( i know thats spelled wrong)...but this city is the first one I found where one was able to light candles...so I did it...twice. Well..the first time i tried...I almost burned my hand, and had walked away from our tour to do it...and then the tour caught up to me...so I ducked out of the way to find more places to light candles and potentially burn the church down. so I did...and I did. but I didnt have any money minus bills...but I still did it. (I also lit a candle in a church the next day...I think it was the same one....but I paid) I'd been waiting for a place in Europe to do this...and was excited. (i know...and odd thing to get excited about...but watevs)After that...we went to lunch...
The wrap we had...it was filled with vegetables. I was so hungry I demolished it and didn't question what exactly was in it (which is what I do most of the time)...and then went and got more food with some people....
...and got sushi....THIS...is vegetarian sushi though...because fish disgusts me. It wasn't too bad though...and like the 3rd time I've had sushi. Then...some people went to take a nap at the hostel. I didn't come to Krakow to nap...so me and this guy from Canada walked around for 2 hours. we walked along the river and along this park that takes the place of the former city walls. (its a narrow park...but really cool if you think about the fact that the park rests on the former city walls).
Wawel CastleThen after that...we went to the evenings activities...a Traditional Highlander evening. I did not have a very good time...because it was a pointless evening if you werent participating in any of the games...I couldnt see what was going on half the time...and I guess I just wasnt in a very good mood. We ate traditional cheese...soup that had a whole hard boiled egg in it (see below)...chicken with potatoes...and some apple thing...and we got a free glass of Zywiec (its the polish beer whose logo is the dancing man and woman...which i thought was quite tasteless if you ask me) I actually tried to steal one of the .3 liter glasses at the end of the night...but it shattered the next day...when i dropped it... stupid karma. So I have no cool Polish beer glass...sad day.
Soup with potato and egg in it...i did not eat the egg...because I hate egg...
Cool street viewThe next day...we toured Auchwitz 1 and 2 which were about an hour outside of
.A sandwich I ate on the bus outside of one of the camps (i know...the worst form of irony)...it was the best turkey and cheese (or ham and cheese) sandwich I had had in some time...I think it was the roll that made the sandwich....
Sign from the front of Auchwitz 1...it translates to 'work makes free"...its an ironic slogan if you think about it...
My first try at getting perogis. I walked around for like 20 minutes trying to find a place that sold them hot (and had completely walked away from the guys I was walking around with because I was on a mission...from god)....and was not having any luck... so I went to my fallback...a deli. (because polish delis always have stuff like that). And...they had like 8 kinds, and potato pancakes (but potato pancakes are not good cold...so I skipped out on them). So...after a few minutes of deliberation, and the Polish lady behind the counter getting progressive pissed at me...I picked the kind called Russkie. I was trying to pick a type that was potato (WELL....after I tried them, I think that they were potato and sour cream, so I was HALF right.) So Im walking out of the store...and walking across the square in Krakow...and I come across these bad boys....
THESE...were some of the best perogis I've ever had. I picked potato and cheese (mainly because that's what the guy ahead of me in line picked) and they also came with some mushroomy sauce thing. A-MAZING. I ate them in the square...and then had a few of the cold ones I got...and was feeling a little more at one with the city, and my heritage.Then I walked around by myself for a while, and got slightly lost. Well, not completely lost, I just could not read which way to face on the map. I wandered into a few churches to take some pictures, but accidentally walked in on 2 masses. I was going to take a picture of a confessional in during one of them, but it felt wrong...so I left.
Creepy-Ass confessional. They had a lot of these in Krakow. I think these confessionals would scare me straight in Krakow (kinda like D.A.R.E. for Catholics).After my walk....and I met up with everyone else...we had a pizza party. Only sadly...it was not cheese and sausage pizza (which would have been amazing) BUT NO...it was pizza with a lot of things that did belong on pizza- like vegetables, and chicken, and I think curry.
The next day, we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which I believe has been in operation since the 1200s. We had to walk down like 20 flights of stairs to get to the start of the tour...and boy was it an experience!! The tour was like 2.5 hours long, and wound through a small part of the cave, and then through a museum that talked about the history of mining there, and salt, and other such dioramas.
The next day, we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which I believe has been in operation since the 1200s. We had to walk down like 20 flights of stairs to get to the start of the tour...and boy was it an experience!! The tour was like 2.5 hours long, and wound through a small part of the cave, and then through a museum that talked about the history of mining there, and salt, and other such dioramas.
View of art, and salt statue.
THATS RIGHT....its a salt statue...of JP2! This was taken in a church that was carved out my several miners in the cave (it was actually quite beautiful) and I technically wasn't supposed to take a picture because I did not pay to get a special sticker to let me take pictures, but I took one anyways...because its JP2.While in the salt mines I managed to get myself almost lost twice. The first time...I went to the bathroomm and then went back to where I thought everyone was. And they were not there. I did eventually find them (it turns out I had not walked far enough). But second time I almost was not so lucky. We were in the museum part of the mines and I had walked away from the group because I like exploring exhibits at my own pace (which is a lot quicker that some people) and had kept walking with this other kid. We found some exhibit of pictures and then turned around and walked back to where everyone else was...and they were not there. We slightly paniced...and backtracked through the whole museum area to the beginnning of the museum, where we ran into this Polish lady who worked there and could tell we were not where we were supposed to be. So she pointed us in the right direction....and thus the end of the excitement of the Salt Mines.
After the salt mines....we had perogis for lunch....OMG were they amazing... I had potato...meat....and saurkraut. BUT the meat ones were the best. Instead of them being smothered in butter (which made me slightly sad)...I think they were cooked with little cubes of pork fat...which made them amazing. I dont think that a lot of the people liked the perogis...but I wish I could have had more ( we were only allowed ten each...:(
The delicious perogis....
The best wafer cookies I have ever had. You can get them in the states (well...my best bud gave me a bunch of them for my birthday one year.) and I'm pretty sure I have seen them in a store a the bottom of the Hancock Building
Then...we had a 9 hour train ride back from Krakow...BUT...not before the guides giving us A free botle of vodka, a free shot glass, and a free bag of polish candy. (actually..we got that earlier in the day, but I didn't remember til about a minute ago.) Because there were so many of us....there was not enough room in the sleeping car for everyone...so me and 3 other guys volunteered to stay in a sitting cabin with our guides...because I'm a nice kid like that. And I figured that I would not sleep a whole lot anyways... BUT...I did get free wine.
Said free wine. It was Australian white wine....imported to Latvia...and sold I guess in Krakow...we could not find a bottle opener...so one guy opened the bottle with a key...and then another guy pushed the cork past the neck...with a pencil. It was decent wine..but I know nothing about wine...I just know what the other guys told me.And then we rolled into the Prague train station at 7 in the morning on Monday...and was back in my room watching the Office after breakfast by 8.30.
And thus ends my trip to mah homeland...well...half of it.
NEXT TRIP: PARIS!!! but I'll hopefully update before then...I do have other things going on besides trip....you know...like class...
....most of the reason why I'm in Prague (in case anyone was wondering...class is going just fine...and I do go...most of the time)
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