Po-Po-Poland!

Last night I returned from a weekend trip to Krakow Poland. We left very early Friday morning and drove about 10 hours (due to traffic and many bathroom breaks). I was really excited for this trip. I slept a good portion of the ride, and read the rest. Once we arrived, Meredith and I went straight to our hotel room to drop off our stuff and refresh ourselves from the long ride. AIFS does a great job of finding us really nice hotels. We often feel spoiled, though the hotels are probably average when compared to one's on the US. The beds were so comfortable, that once we sat down, we did not want to get up. But our growling stomachs had another agenda so soon after we found ourselves, as well as a group of friends, on our way down town to find a spot for some dinner. We walked around for a while trying to find a location that had "pierogi." Though their official country of origin is unknown, they are typically referred to as Slavic cuisine. They are basically unleavened balls of dough that are filled with cheese or meat and are boiled into the consistency of a dumpling. Try as we might, we were unable to find a place so we went to a tourist spot that had a wide selection. They were a very "meat based" country so I settled on the infamous cheese pizza. After a long day behind us and an early morning ahead of us, we decided to call it an early night. The next morning, we arose at 8, and headed out for a guided tour of the city. I am not sure what I was excepting, but Krakow definitely went above and beyond my expectations. It was a beautiful city. Krakow is the leader of Poland's science, cultural, and artistic scene. It is visited by millions of tourists a year, and though it is not the capital today, it was from 1038-1596. We walked all around the down town area where the streets were lined with modern shopping stores placed in varying types of European architecture. After walking around for a few hours, we were dismissed for a few hours of free time. What do five girls do with free time? We went shopping of course! They had a really neat tent filled with little stands of vendors selling unique goods. We bought a few souvenirs, and were on our way. We grabbed of quick lunch and headed back to meet the group for a tour of the castle as well as the Jewish quarter. It was of course beautiful. The cit of Krakow is much more religious then Prague and the other cities we have traveled too. Since last week was "All Saints Day" many of the sites were surrounded by candles, and flowers. They also had a lot of religiously affiliated statues, such as previous popes', Mary, and Jesus. Since Prague is incredibly atheist, it was nice to see such statues and such. The Jewish quarter was very interesting. After WWII many of the Jews felt very unsafe there, and fled to other cities were they felt more support. Today there are only an estimated 150 Jews still living in Krakow, which is a dramatic drop from previous times. After hours of walking and exploration, we headed back to the hotel and took a brief rest on our "oh-so-comfy" beds. We then headed out for dinner at around seven and ended up eating at a Georgian restaurant. I had a burrito with stewed vegetables. It was good food, but at this point anything other then cheese pizza is good! We went back to the hotel and Meredith, I, and our friend Josephine stayed in and hung out in our hotel room. The next morning, we were greeted by an annoying 7 am morning call and headed out for the day. We stopped a long the way at Auschwitz, and then drove about 8 hours back to the Kolej. I plan to write about Auschwitz later on this week. It was such a draining experience, I need a little longer to process it before I can put my thoughts into legible words. I promise I will though! I just got back last night, and now I have a few midterms tomorrow, and then I leave for Stockholm Sweden Wednesday morning! Boy, life sure is rough :)