Krakow II

Day 3

Castle Wawel was pretty damn awesome.  We purchased tix to almost every available area allowed.  We also took the audio tour of the cathedral, bell tower, tombs of the kings any other important figures of Poland and then the Pope John Paul II museum.  Sooo much I can say here, but it’s hard to describe all the treasures and history this place has.  Just go to Poland and visit it.  Check the wikipedia page on it as well here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawel_Castle

After Wawel we walked back into town and ended up at the market square.    The main market is a site to see. Indoors and booths lines up on both sides. The colors, the people the items to buy was just a bit wow. When I first walked in I just stood there with my mouth open and then grabbed my camera to start snapping some pics.  This is the main of the  indoor market

inside the market.

DAY III  The Salt Mines of Wieliczka

This is a must see for everyone that comes to Krakow, take a mini bus for 3PLN and 20min drive and you’ll see one of the coolest things you’ll ever see in your life.   Here is more info about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieliczka_Salt_Mine

The tour was great, 3hrs long and u end up 125m underground.  Kinda scary being that is a mine and all.   There is so much lumber down there that you can easily build a huge town out of it.  To get down to the first level you have to walk down 378 steps just to get at 64m.  This is a view looking down.  We were in the last leg of the walk.  I could not imagine walking up those stairs and feeling the temp rise as you got closer to the top.  So much better going down.

For a while they used horses to do a lot of the heavy work, the horses had to be lowered by rope thru a mine shaft straight down.  They spent their entire lives working in the mines never seeing sunlight again.  But they said they were treated very very well down there.  After that, the only animal they exploited working in the mine was MAN.    The cathedral was amazing, carved out by 3 miners who weren’t even artists over a period of 60years.  Others replaced them over time. 

 

I’ll have more pics posted up on my Picasaweb  account for all to see.

G

Krakow

This has been a great trip so far.  So far I’ve been to  Warsaw, Szrensk, Troszyn, Ostrołęka, Płock, Bochnia, Wielicka, Wadowice and Krakow.  Of these cities so far, Krakow is my favorite.  It’s a city where men were crowned kings, a dragon was slain, …and even a woman was crowned king for a time.  After she died, hubby took over.  A fave thing  of mine is walking thru a city and just can’t stop staring at all the architecture.  The houses, churches, castles…  Just so much, it' was a feast for the eyes., 

We arrived on a Tuesday as soon as we checked in we headed right out the door to start a whole lotta walking that we would end up doing that week.  I felt like by the end of it that I had worn my feet out.  And now have to check out a clicky left ankle.  It used to start clicking a while after I’ve been walking, but now I take a few steps and it starts right away.  Anyways…  We found our way over to the Castle Wawel which was a good mile from our hostel, but we arrived pretty late and most exhibits were already off the menu for the evening.  We decided to hit it another day and take time looking at everything.  From there we strolled over to the Jewish quarter.  Mom felt that it was a bit scraggly and said that we shouldn’t be in the area after dark, she thought it might be a dangerous area.   We walked a bit more and ran into a few popular streets where there were  tons of tourists.  We ended up at a restaurant/pub called Stajnia.  There was also a hostel called by the same name.  Mom and I had an amazing dinner.  just see for yourself

 

I had the steak and mom some ribs.  Both were so lip smacking good. 

 

Day 2   the 25th

Mom and I traveled by bus to a town called Bochnia.  There I went to visit the grave of my best friend Simon Karecki.  He past away 10yrs ago on the 13th of May.

There was one of those moments where you know someone is looking out for you and I do believe it was Simon.  I had a picture of what the site looked like and I knew we were headed in the right direction based on the trees I saw in the picture which was odd enough. I picked out trees from an entire cemetery.  ???  My mom was saying to herself under her breath, Simon please help us find the way over to where you are,  no sooner did we come across 2 ladies attending to a grave and mother stopped to ask them where the area of his grave might be.  We had the area, row and plot but didn’t know where the markers were.  Just as my mom asked them, I looked at the grave they were attending and I said “Mom, we’re here. Here is Simon.”  The women are old family friends of Simon’s family.  My mom was a little shocked by this.  No sooner did she ask him for help we came right up to him.  We placed flowers and candles at his grave and spoke with ladies.  They knew I was coming but had no idea as to when, so it was a big coincidence that we arrived when we did.  We told them that after we wanted to visit the salt mines in town. It is one of the biggest in the world and oldest as well.  They were going to give us a lift,  They left us and told us they would meet us at the entrance of the cemetery and gave me some alone time with Simon.

We met up with them but changed plans, we instead took them out to lunch and chatted up a bit to learn a bit about the town and Simon’s mom when she was younger.  They all knew Simon as a kid growing up and always kept tabs on his growing up and his success.  I opted not to go to the mines so we instead could grab a bus and go to the town of Wadowice where Pope John Paul II grew up.  here is some info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadowice  We got there a bit late to see the museum and his house was under renovations, but we were able to attend a mass that started just as soon as we walked into the church.  Mom was really happy about that.  She intends on going to Poland again soon and will revisit that town earlier in the day and hopes the renovations to his family home will be done by then.

I will continue this later………

 

Fucking flies

Have people+animals+farms+poop+refuse+everything else = DEATH BY FLYSWATTER!

And some of these punk ass bitches bite.

 

Mosquitos and fruit flies suck just as much.

 

G

And after 30hrs of no sleep and some delirium....

Ugh, I hate flying. I made a booboo when choosing the seats on the flight to Germany on Lufthansa. I also now agree that they do not serve good food. The plane is nice and new and stuff, but I think airline food in general sucks so far. I have yet to be convinced otherwise. Cramped is the best word I can use to describe the seats. They pack you in like sardines. Even mom who is much much smaller than me was like, ok...this is tight. I did choose better locations on the flights coming home. It is what it is.

The flight itself left JFK an hour late, which made it interesting cause we only had a 50min layover in Munich. Suffice to say, we missed our connecting flight. :( Stress levels rising, getting a little anxious and sweating, we head back to the cust serv desk and explain the dealio. We caught a flight that started boarding about an hour twenty five after the one we missed, sweeeeet! The guy at the desk was kind enough to let us use his phone to call Poland and let everyone who was picking us up of the new flight info. Caught them just in time cause they were just about to walk out the door.

Poland!!! We arrive in Warsaw, grab luggage and my what now seems to be customary "need to take a dump before I go anywhere, dump" lol Then we walk out and greeted by my cousins and an aunt. Hugs and kisses and greetings all around and now lets get to the car.

We drove over to their apt in Warsaw to chill and relax a bit and then have some lunch. I don't know if some of you are familiar with Polish food, but it is the bomb diggaty. This country is all about heartiness and flavor. Just super savory.

After lunch, we grab our stuff and then head out to their country house in Szrensk. It's a new build sitting on a beautiful piece of property, all passed on from family, and meet even more cousins! I have a lot of them. I don't even dare think how many I have out here. (just realized I can type a ton of stuff here, I'll try to keep it simple)
We all hung out a bit & toasted with some champagne, after we stepped outside a bit and I saw something just really uncommon to me. A group of cows from some far close by I assume were casually strolling down the street. Just walking and mooing. My cousin just looked at me and she said, "that's normal for here." I just go with the flow.



I passed out at about 10pm Sat night and woke up at 6am. Headed down to the kitchen to start processing some pics I had already taken. I was the first one up and chilling, then my aunt and then my cousin. She told me she saw the door to my bedroom ajar a bit and she quietly closed the door thinking I was still sleeping hehe. She came down to the kitchen and I was all like "GOOD MORNIN!" :) I had to nap about 2hrs after lunch cause the 'tired' was still lingering over my head. Feel better.

We went to visit another cousin right next door and sat with her family to shoot the breeze. I love hearing my mom talk about stuff cause sometimes I get to hear a little bit of the family dirt. Great gossip especially when your family is pretty large.

Tomorrow, some sight seeing around mom's old hood and start taking some photos. Ooh, there will not be as many photos as I want posted. Turns out this netbook I borrowed doesn't have enough screen realty to allow me to run the apps I need for picture processing. I will have to make due with web tools and a much longer processing time, means more work when I get home. So...sorry there won't be as many pics as I'd like to post for ya'll. I'll do my best.

I'll catch you all up in a day or 2 and let you know what is going on and what I see. I hope any of my family that follows me on FB will read this.

Hey, if you follow this blog let me know by clicking the follow button in the upper right hand corner.

peace out

G

Dzień dobry!!

And a good morning to you all. In case some of you don't know, I in Poland with my mom for some R&R. Like I needed it right? Actually I do. Some of you know me really well and know what a freakball I've been for some time. This was a trip that was a long time coming as well. I've been to the "Fatherland" and now it's time to visit the "Motherland". This is really my mom's vacation and she nicely asked me to come along with. She really kinda insisted, saying that I've never been and was afraid that if she passed away that I would never make it here on my own. Not true, but she wasn't taking any chances.

So I figured why not document my vacation as I go along and this will be a nice reminder to me in case I get kicked in the head by a mule or something down the road and can't remember the trip. I'll post some pics up as well, and when I get home I'll have a ton of post processing to do. (not looking forward to that) I'm working off a borrowed netbook so processing any pics along the way will already be strain enough. I may also be out of communique sometimes when I go from town to town, village to village and city to city, so I don't know how often I can post. I'll do my best.

Hope some of you will follow along with me on this trip. Oh, I will be uploading and continue reviewing some food and other stuff on my other blog as well.


G