Krakow

Sometimes I worry that the blog seems a little braggy, when really it's just meant to be a sort of diary for us and a newsletter for our family. I think I've said it before, but I'll just mention it again: I leave out lots of dumb stuff: like me falling off the ebike or us arriving in Krakow without an exact address for the apartment and having to get help from the police station across the street. Stuff like that, though not so bad, does happen. It's not all chocolates and gondolas.

Anyway, the trip from Warsaw to Krakow was super easy, and the police only took about twenty minutes to find our apartment, contact the rep who was supposed to let us in, and get him on the scene. It was impressive and we had to wonder what leftover cold war tactics they might have used. It's a great apartment and we are settled in for the next few days.

On Saturday we wanted to just walk around and explore Old Town. First we went to a market, though, because I love seeing the different markets! This market had a few things that made it special:



- old ladies selling this and that on the sidewalk outside the official market. One woman was selling nasturtium and sweet pea bouquets, some old knives, slippers, and a wig. That was typical. The wig was just thrown down on the blanket and looked like an animal.

- berries! We got more than a pound of giant raspberries for about $3. There were strawberries, tiny wild strawberries, gooseberries, currants, blackberries, and tiny wild blueberries. L loved it! She was clapping and yelling, "Mine erdbeere! Mine himbeere!" I don't know where she picked up the German or if she knows the English. There was an elderly woman in line in front of us and she insisted on feeding T and L some of her raspberries even though we were buying a box, too.

- shelled fava beans sold in huge bags, hungarian peppers, vegetables bundled for soup-making, all sorts of beets, and pickles

- the containers and scoops used by the vendors were sometimes very obviously antique. I was very impressed with the metal rake-like scoops they used, thinking they were cool and old. Later I was at a small convenience grocery store with the girls and saw a very similar scoop in the potatoes.

- meat, meat, and more meat.

We took our raspberries and wild strawberries to the park and had a mini-picnic before continuing toward Old Town. We checked out the old city walls, and S went into an art supply shop, then we just walked through the city a bit. The kids were still hungry, so we stopped in one of the places I had on my list for our visit - a milk bar.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_mleczny  The kids loved it! S wants to go back before we leave, and I see no reason not to. S had eggs and E had pierogi, which was very traditional of them. R had a tuna panini. She had a panini for the first time the other day and really liked it. Grill marks are cool. L stole my cold watermelon soup because it was pink!

From the milk bar we headed toward the main square, but first ran into a street festival. There were booths with little crafts, people in traditional dress, and tons of food. Most impressive were the grills. There were enormous grills set up with sausages, and pork chunks, and shish kebabs as long as T's arm. They were all sizzling and there was an incredible smoky smell.  One stand also has big pans with potatoes or garlicky mushrooms. At another stand a woman was personalizing gingerbread hearts.

Ludwilla and Bogusia, you are in luck, there are hearts for you!

It looks like those are huge slabs of fat being sold on the left.

I think it is funny that this well dressed woman with perfect nails is about to pack away an enormous slice of bread (the whole loaves were as big around as hassocks) slathered with onion paste and pickles.

Just around the corner was the cathedral. We bought our tickets and were stopped by the guard at the door. He wanted to know if we wanted to pay to take pictures. We kind of did, but we didn't have small change so we said no. Then we stepped inside and E turned around to go get some change - and we hadn't even turned the corner to see the main aisle of the church. It was really beautiful, and there is no way that pictures could do it justice because seeing the whole thing at once is pretty overwhelming. It is one of the prettiest churches I've ever seen. We were lucky that we were leaving the church on the hour and were able to see and hear the bugle call from the tower.

The front of the church opens onto the market square, so there we were. It was quite busy. Whether it was extra busy because of the festival, I don't know. We went to the cloth hall, which is just a bunch of overpriced souvenir stalls. The girls realized that and just had fun browsing, but T saw something he couldn't do without and convinced us to buy him a souvenir - a stuffed dragon, the symbol of Krakow. He knew exactly which one he wanted - "the one what's fat and chubby." The dragon's name is Bobby and we are going to have to make room for him in the luggage. T is very very happy.

L was falling asleep and E had some important work to do so he brought the littles back to the apartment while the girls and I walked down to the castle. It was interesting, but we were kind of tired, too, so we just went in the church. The church has tons of artifacts from St Jadwiga. She seems to have lots of fans, because it was quite busy. In the church we saw the 10th and 11th nuns of the day. We have started to count because there are just so many nuns around. At home we can go weeks or even months without noticing any.

On the left is an old church we passed on our way through town.

On the right is the castle church. Look at all the chapels stuck to its side. It almost doesn't even look like a church anymore. It's unusual from the inside, too, but we couldn't take pictures.

We walked home after that. It was a nice walk and we had gone a different way in the morning, so it was nice to see what there was to see. While we were at the castle a stage had been set up in the market square. We stopped to listen to the concert for a bit but wanted to go home.

On our apartment balcony. S kept watch and saw the eggs. She also fed the pigeon every day.

We settled in to relax and take showers just as E was getting his second wind. I had mentioned the shish kebab again and he was pretty interested, too, so back he went. (He saw four more nuns along the way.) The kebab was as good as it smelled! Though it was funny to us - threaded on the stick with the meat and onions were straight out pieces of fat. We wonder whether they were just for flavor or whether we were meant to eat them. We didn't.