Exploring Krakow

While my mom was in Poland, we decided to visit Krakow and Wroclaw.

This is the famous Krakow Pretzel.  They cost like a quarter and keep your tummy from growling since you're constantly walking and exploring the city.  They have these little pretzel stands at nearly every corner - making them a very convenient finger food.

Krakow was our first stop.  We did a lot of exploring.  I had been here 8 years ago, and wow, so much has changed in 8 years.  This city is way more touristy than I remember it being the last time I was here.   I also remember Krakow being a massive city - but this time that I came, I didn't feel like it was that big or easy to get lost in.  

One of my favorite places in Krakow is the sukiennice.  It means "cloth hall" in Polish.  It used to house a trading system for - cloth.  During the war it was destroyed - and alas - has been rebuilt.  The inside houses a museum and lots of little Polish souvenirs and trinkets that are all homemade and symbolize the heart of Poland's cultural style in arts & crafts.

  I love all the little finds inside of here.  I'm pretty sure that 19 year old Katie bought all the souvenirs pictured above the first time that she was in Krakow.  But I still have my eye set on a few that I really want to buy to display in my home in America one day.

  Around the outside of the Rynek is absolutely beautiful and full of life.  There are hundreds of children from all over Europe - here on field trips to explore the city (and the surrounding areas - more to come on that later) and lots of cute little flower shops with bright yellow canopies.  

But, by far, my favorite was the street performers.

Seriously, I need to find out how she does this and become a street vendor here in Warsaw.  This is great!

I laughed so hard when my mom wanted her picture taken next to the silver statue.  She thought it was an odd statue to be placed in the Rynek - but hey - Lionardo's "Lady with an Ermine" is housed in Krakow so maybe it is a tribute to his work.  As we got closer, the statue blinked and scared my mom.  I laughed so hard.  It was great.  But then it gets better - she wanted her picture next to another "street performer" which actually was a statue.  Just a regular mannequin showing off a traditional Polish cultural outfit. 

After exploring the Rynek we decided to explore the Wawel Castle.  They only sell so many tickets a day and since there were so many field trips - they were sold out for that day. Instead we just wandered around in the inside of the castle walls.  It's really pretty and I don't feel like we missed out on anything except seeing the Royal Treasury - which, like I said - I don't feel like we missed out on anything.

Every night my mom wandered around the Rynek trying to connect to the local Wi-fi (which worked, but wasn't strong enough since too many people were using it) to show her 2nd graders back in Layton the beautiful city and let them have a "cultural experience."

(Move over Provo, the "boots" in Krakow seem way more serious).

One of the days there we went to Schindler's Factory (from Schindler's List).  They turned the whole factory into a museum so you don't really get to see any of the actual "factory" but you do get to see the desk that Oskar Schindler worked at.  After reading about him, from the museum, I have very mixed feelings about this Mr. Schindler.  Don't get me wrong - he was a great guy for saving as many Jews as he could.... but... it talked about how he was a womanizer and not faithful to his wife.  Also talked about how shady his life was before he got into this position of power.  It seemed like he would do anything to knock other people down just to make himself look better and raise his stature in life.  That doesn't seem like your typical person who reaches out to others and tries to save others lives.  Somewhere, somehow the dots don't connect for me and I don't have a good picture of who he really was.

Near Schindler's Factory there is an outside display of art.  It's pictures of chairs in a square.  I think that the empty square and empty chairs are supposed to symbolize the people who lived in Krakow who died during WWII and what their life could have turned out.  The chairs are empty because these ghosts will never get to fulfill their dreams or make an impact in someone's life because their life was cut short by the war.  They represent what could have been and instead what is missing in Krakow.

I had a lot of fun exploring in Krakow.  Exploring is my favorite.  That's why I love traveling so much with Michal because we just go exploring together.  When I realized that's what my mom loved to also do (explore) it made it so enjoyable.  We were able to find our way around, laugh at our mistakes, and go where we wanted to, when we wanted to and how we wanted to.  It was great. 

More to come...

I ♥ Chopin

The first weekend that my mom was here we decided to show her how much Poles LOVE Chopin!

Our first stop was to Chopin's hometown: Zelazowa Wola.

It's a little hard to get to this area as it is located about 20-30 minutes outside of Warsaw by train.  Then you have to take a bus (which runs like once an hour) or a taxi to get to his hometown.  We opted for the taxi.

I had heard (for years) that if you could play Chopin's works, that you could play his actual piano.  False.  They don't allow this.  And whoever told me this - you really got me good!  I was suckered into believing that you could play his piano.

The inside of his home takes you through a guided tour telling all about his childhood and interesting facts about Chopin.  Here is one interesting fact that I learned that I never knew before...

... The actual birth date of Chopin is unknown.  The Parish Register shows his birthday as being February 22nd.  However, Chopin always signed his name with his birthday underneath as March 1st.  His family also always celebrated his birthday on March 1st.  So... I'm going to say that Chopin was born March 1st.  Because it's a great super-awesome day to be born.  I'm just going to believe that the parish register marked down the DUE DATE because he was too lazy to be around for the actual birth.

Even though the house is full of fun facts, the gardens outside were amazing.  As you walk through them you hear Chopin's music playing throughout the greenery.  As well, you can hear frogs croaking and birds signing.  It really is gorgeous around the home.

Well, except for the mosquitoes there. It was a warm day, but there were quite a bit of mosquitoes annoying me.  So I'd rather be hot than itchy.  Michal even caught me in the action of swatting away the bugs while I was getting my picture taken. 

Remember how I said that we opted for the Taxi cab ride as opposed to the bus?  Well, we got the most incredible driver that took us there - and back.  On the way back, he liked us so much that he turned off the meter and took us on a tour of this little city.  He told us all about it and was so excited to share his city with us.  Apparently his wife died about a year ago and so to keep himself from getting lonely, he decided to become a taxi driver.  He didn't need the money, but wanted the companionship of being able to talk to others.  I sure hope that we made his day more enjoyable by chatting with him and getting to know him and his hometown better.   He told us some interesting stories.  He told us about how his father had immigrated to the United States, but came back to get his Father (the cab driver's Grandfather) from Poland.  He came back right as the war hit Poland and was snatched up by the Nazis and shipped off to a concentration camp - where he later died. Therefore, he was raised by his grandfather and stayed in Poland instead of returning back to the United States with his dad.  What an interesting story - right?

The next day we took mom to Lazienki Park (pronounced: Wah-zhenk-ee - which, ironically, means Bathroom). I think that it comes from the fact that there used to be Turkish baths in this park hundreds of years ago.

Every Sunday at Lazienki park they do Chopin concerts at noon and 4pm. It is absolutely beautiful and so relaxing.  This happened to be the first concert of the summer.  The lady playing had participated in every concert since they've started and is always the pianist to start the annual tradition.  The only catch is that you are ONLY allowed to play Chopin's music.

The concert lasts for about 45-50 minutes.  Afterwards we decided to take a stroll in the park.  I had heard that there were Peacocks in this park somewhere.  And you know me - I can't miss out on finding peacocks.  So we went hunting.  And find the peacocks we did!

(Random statue of Ronald Regan across the street from the U.S. Embassy.  For those out you who know how liberal Michal is - I think that I deserve a pat on the back for getting such a great shot of him in front of this statue.  But seriously, Poles love Reagan.  He is an icon here and probably, one day, will mean as much to Poland as Chopin.)

 This concluded our Chopin centered weekend.  It's a shame for people to come all the way out to Poland and not be able to see how much this artist is revered here.