Ahh, the color of money
Acadia National Park 2018
8 years ago
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Wiwa Krakow!
Dobry wiecor, (good afternoon)
Just spending another lovely day walking amongst castles and cathedrals!
Yesterday I toured the Wawel Castle, the southern anchor of the old town, and on a sinuous curve of the Vistula river. The castle has survived numerous invasions and occupations. The Austrian's even turned the cathedral into a military barracks! The castle walls are completely intact, and set you high enough to see greater Krakow, including a unique building that houses around 5,000 pieces of Japanese art and sculpture. The river has glass smooth pathways along both sides of it, and people walk, ride and rollerblade along the shores.
Near the dawn of Krakow (10th C), a man fought off a vicious dragon who lived at the bottom of the hill. The dragon was always eating sheep and lovely virgins. Damn dragon. Mr. Krak (Crac) had the wonderful idea of stuffing a sheep with sulfur and feeding the dragon with it. The dragon took the bait. He swallowed it whole and ran to the river and drank and drank and drank. Not too much longer, the dragon began to explode this way and that, and the villagers were greeted with a tremendous fireworks show-and poof, dragon no more! Kill a dragon, and you get to name your town!
Today I got to move in one day early to my flat, just north of old town and about 10 minutes walk to my school, of which I start Monday. I'm sharing the well furnished flat with 2 women who just finished the course and fly out tomorrow. They said it was very difficult, especially if you don't have any prior teaching experience. Oh, boy. My flat is huge. It has 2-3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a huge, odd looking kitchen, bisected by this mass of spaced out 2 by 4s in an odd geometric pattern. It really kills the space for socializing (which would be possible, it's so big). We also have a pigeon living outside the back bedroom, and it's nesting 2 babies! All the time in publics settings and seeing pigeons everywhere, I never saw a baby pigeon--so that was the real reason I flew all the way to Poland!!!btw, the two babies are small and yellow. Connie, from the UK/Germany said they were itsy bitsy before and yellow like lil' chicks. My guess is they'll be outta there within a week looking at their movement and size...My new flatmate, Andrew, will be moving in later tonight, too. He's also from the UK and he's 23 years old. I think he's fresh out of college from somewhere. Maybe I can get some study tips from him since it's been awhile!
Food: The food here is excellent and everything is amazingly fresh. They have Salat bars, Milk bars, bars , cafes, restaurants and, of course pubs.Salad bars are almost just that. Since most meals are pretty meaty in Poland, these places provide lighter fare, which is almost always entirely vegetarian (wegetarianski). My first salat bar experience providied me with a stuffed red pepper, a pea filled crepe, a thick cheese filled crepe, spinach quiche and all washed down with striking green Nettle Juice. Really! All of it was good, but the pepper was best. The juice was pretty refreshing with a light sweetness to it, nothing like the usual spirulina/superfood fare. Just don't swallow the last drop...ick. Cost me about $2.90.Milk bars: the next step up in weight. Called this because milk is used in so many of the ingredients. Obviously a place to go if your bones are weak! They have a mix of meat and veggie fixins. Also pretty cheap.
Bars: just that. They serve booze and beers and maybe some nasty sardine concoction to wash down the vodka. no thanks.
Restaurants: these are the normal places you'd expect to eat like in the states. You sit, you get served, they pamper you a bit, you get the check, and this is the one place where you tip the staff-but nowhere else?! Full menus and drinks, but Polish restaurants close early, Italian kitchens stay open late...haven't figured out why yet.
Pubs: Pubs didn't exist at all in Poland until the 90's. They mimicked the Irish and British theme, almost to a T. Almost all the names are from those countries. In fact, there has been such a boom in pubs, there are over 400 in Krakow alone-more than any other city in Europe! Oh, most close sometime between midnight and 6 a.m.
Discos: They're here, too. Haven't ventured there yet...probably won't until Warsaw since school starts soon...plus I don't disco. :-(
Relative to the homefront, apparently breakfast isn't a big out of the house meal. Some salat bars offer crepes and such, but nothing like we're used to. Every other restaurant doesn't open until 11:30 or even 4 pm. Guess I should go to the store soon...
So, other interesting things of note:
Fashion
The rain stopped and the city morphed into a massive, rolling urban fashion show! A few things where Seattle and Krakow differ: (This goes for men and women, but mostly women-the men here aren't as fashionable as I've seen in other parts of Europe)
Pink: Pink reigns in Seattle, on the young and the old, some tight, some short, some not. Here, pink is kind of in, but it's usually a darker shade, and a bit more formal atire (usually), i.e. a bit more tasteful, still not as overbearing as the states...they also don't put obnoxious phrases on their shirts here...though I did see a black one that said Mango on it (like Portugal, Mr. Steffens?)
Tattoos: Seattle wins again. You can't walk half a block in almost any neighborhood of Seattle and not see at least one tatoo-arms, neck, back of the shoulder, top of the butt, around the navel or on the calf or ankle. After two days of glorious weather here, they exist, but only a few a day.
Piercings: Chester Pierce wins! (Seattle). Same story as above. If there are any piercings, it usually only in one unique spot. I'm sure London differs a bit.
White: OK, for some reason, white, see-through pants are in. Fortunately, most of the women have the bods for it. But a few don't...
Sunglasses: Very few people wear them, surprisingly. Though there's sunglass shops everywhere.
Therefore: Eye Makeup-I've seen some of the most garish mascara recently, but it's usually on the young set.
Hair: Most styles are fairly short, men and women. The only other long haired men I've seen are usually from other countries, though not necessarily USA-usually Italian, Spanish or even Indian. Women more often than not have several shades of color to their mop. A few are outrageiously red or pink, or jet black.
Pants: In Greece and Italy, locals never wore shorts. That made it very easy to find other Americans there. Here it's a bit different. Young and old, locals and tourists do wear shorts, but still not of the numbers of Americans that do/would. Manpris (Men's capris) are in here, too. Guess I should have picked up that pair at TNF...
Skirts/shorts for women: One thing that stuck out from my trip along the High Sierra on the PCT was running into trainees for the British Army. The military had flown them to the states to hike the entire John Muir Trail to get their butts in shape (a nice sort of boot camp, eh?). The crew was mostly men/boys but there were a few girls. And they all wore short short shorts and their buns hung out the bottom. WHY?!! Well, some of those Brits are here, too! Doesn't anyone tell them that's offensive?! Plus a sunburn there has got to hurt! Same story, young and old, skinny and not.
There's so many accents it's hard to say who's from where. There are definitely a lot of Germans and French. There's few Spaniards, Italians and Brits. I've definitely heard some Russians. Oh, the Japanese are here, too. And they harrass little girls for their pictures. There are a few Americans here. Apparently, a few of the students in my upcoming class are Americans who already live here in Poland...Hopefully they'll have some solid Visa tips for me before my tourist visa runs out!
OK, someone is smoking too close to me to handle, I'll finish soon.On a related note, I've seen fewer smokers than I expected. And when people do smoke near any of the plazas or cathedrals, they're always good about putting out their cigarettes in designated spots-atop metal garbage cans, where they're cleaned regularly by local street cleaners (who also clean up right away after the horse drawn carriages). I think it's more of a social thing here where they smoke a little bit during the day, and a helluva lot at the restaurant/bar/disco when a drink is in hand. Hopefully my roommate doesn't smoke.
I'm getting good at saying: Nie mowie po polsku! and Czy pani mowi po angielsku?
Milo mi!
Jeronimo!
!btw, if you'd rather not get my Poland Spam, just let me know. I'll just let you know when it's up and running on my website so I don't flood your inbox.
Just spending another lovely day walking amongst castles and cathedrals!
Yesterday I toured the Wawel Castle, the southern anchor of the old town, and on a sinuous curve of the Vistula river. The castle has survived numerous invasions and occupations. The Austrian's even turned the cathedral into a military barracks! The castle walls are completely intact, and set you high enough to see greater Krakow, including a unique building that houses around 5,000 pieces of Japanese art and sculpture. The river has glass smooth pathways along both sides of it, and people walk, ride and rollerblade along the shores.
Near the dawn of Krakow (10th C), a man fought off a vicious dragon who lived at the bottom of the hill. The dragon was always eating sheep and lovely virgins. Damn dragon. Mr. Krak (Crac) had the wonderful idea of stuffing a sheep with sulfur and feeding the dragon with it. The dragon took the bait. He swallowed it whole and ran to the river and drank and drank and drank. Not too much longer, the dragon began to explode this way and that, and the villagers were greeted with a tremendous fireworks show-and poof, dragon no more! Kill a dragon, and you get to name your town!
Today I got to move in one day early to my flat, just north of old town and about 10 minutes walk to my school, of which I start Monday. I'm sharing the well furnished flat with 2 women who just finished the course and fly out tomorrow. They said it was very difficult, especially if you don't have any prior teaching experience. Oh, boy. My flat is huge. It has 2-3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a huge, odd looking kitchen, bisected by this mass of spaced out 2 by 4s in an odd geometric pattern. It really kills the space for socializing (which would be possible, it's so big). We also have a pigeon living outside the back bedroom, and it's nesting 2 babies! All the time in publics settings and seeing pigeons everywhere, I never saw a baby pigeon--so that was the real reason I flew all the way to Poland!!!btw, the two babies are small and yellow. Connie, from the UK/Germany said they were itsy bitsy before and yellow like lil' chicks. My guess is they'll be outta there within a week looking at their movement and size...My new flatmate, Andrew, will be moving in later tonight, too. He's also from the UK and he's 23 years old. I think he's fresh out of college from somewhere. Maybe I can get some study tips from him since it's been awhile!
Food: The food here is excellent and everything is amazingly fresh. They have Salat bars, Milk bars, bars , cafes, restaurants and, of course pubs.Salad bars are almost just that. Since most meals are pretty meaty in Poland, these places provide lighter fare, which is almost always entirely vegetarian (wegetarianski). My first salat bar experience providied me with a stuffed red pepper, a pea filled crepe, a thick cheese filled crepe, spinach quiche and all washed down with striking green Nettle Juice. Really! All of it was good, but the pepper was best. The juice was pretty refreshing with a light sweetness to it, nothing like the usual spirulina/superfood fare. Just don't swallow the last drop...ick. Cost me about $2.90.Milk bars: the next step up in weight. Called this because milk is used in so many of the ingredients. Obviously a place to go if your bones are weak! They have a mix of meat and veggie fixins. Also pretty cheap.
Bars: just that. They serve booze and beers and maybe some nasty sardine concoction to wash down the vodka. no thanks.
Restaurants: these are the normal places you'd expect to eat like in the states. You sit, you get served, they pamper you a bit, you get the check, and this is the one place where you tip the staff-but nowhere else?! Full menus and drinks, but Polish restaurants close early, Italian kitchens stay open late...haven't figured out why yet.
Pubs: Pubs didn't exist at all in Poland until the 90's. They mimicked the Irish and British theme, almost to a T. Almost all the names are from those countries. In fact, there has been such a boom in pubs, there are over 400 in Krakow alone-more than any other city in Europe! Oh, most close sometime between midnight and 6 a.m.
Discos: They're here, too. Haven't ventured there yet...probably won't until Warsaw since school starts soon...plus I don't disco. :-(
Relative to the homefront, apparently breakfast isn't a big out of the house meal. Some salat bars offer crepes and such, but nothing like we're used to. Every other restaurant doesn't open until 11:30 or even 4 pm. Guess I should go to the store soon...
So, other interesting things of note:
Fashion
The rain stopped and the city morphed into a massive, rolling urban fashion show! A few things where Seattle and Krakow differ: (This goes for men and women, but mostly women-the men here aren't as fashionable as I've seen in other parts of Europe)
Pink: Pink reigns in Seattle, on the young and the old, some tight, some short, some not. Here, pink is kind of in, but it's usually a darker shade, and a bit more formal atire (usually), i.e. a bit more tasteful, still not as overbearing as the states...they also don't put obnoxious phrases on their shirts here...though I did see a black one that said Mango on it (like Portugal, Mr. Steffens?)
Tattoos: Seattle wins again. You can't walk half a block in almost any neighborhood of Seattle and not see at least one tatoo-arms, neck, back of the shoulder, top of the butt, around the navel or on the calf or ankle. After two days of glorious weather here, they exist, but only a few a day.
Piercings: Chester Pierce wins! (Seattle). Same story as above. If there are any piercings, it usually only in one unique spot. I'm sure London differs a bit.
White: OK, for some reason, white, see-through pants are in. Fortunately, most of the women have the bods for it. But a few don't...
Sunglasses: Very few people wear them, surprisingly. Though there's sunglass shops everywhere.
Therefore: Eye Makeup-I've seen some of the most garish mascara recently, but it's usually on the young set.
Hair: Most styles are fairly short, men and women. The only other long haired men I've seen are usually from other countries, though not necessarily USA-usually Italian, Spanish or even Indian. Women more often than not have several shades of color to their mop. A few are outrageiously red or pink, or jet black.
Pants: In Greece and Italy, locals never wore shorts. That made it very easy to find other Americans there. Here it's a bit different. Young and old, locals and tourists do wear shorts, but still not of the numbers of Americans that do/would. Manpris (Men's capris) are in here, too. Guess I should have picked up that pair at TNF...
Skirts/shorts for women: One thing that stuck out from my trip along the High Sierra on the PCT was running into trainees for the British Army. The military had flown them to the states to hike the entire John Muir Trail to get their butts in shape (a nice sort of boot camp, eh?). The crew was mostly men/boys but there were a few girls. And they all wore short short shorts and their buns hung out the bottom. WHY?!! Well, some of those Brits are here, too! Doesn't anyone tell them that's offensive?! Plus a sunburn there has got to hurt! Same story, young and old, skinny and not.
There's so many accents it's hard to say who's from where. There are definitely a lot of Germans and French. There's few Spaniards, Italians and Brits. I've definitely heard some Russians. Oh, the Japanese are here, too. And they harrass little girls for their pictures. There are a few Americans here. Apparently, a few of the students in my upcoming class are Americans who already live here in Poland...Hopefully they'll have some solid Visa tips for me before my tourist visa runs out!
OK, someone is smoking too close to me to handle, I'll finish soon.On a related note, I've seen fewer smokers than I expected. And when people do smoke near any of the plazas or cathedrals, they're always good about putting out their cigarettes in designated spots-atop metal garbage cans, where they're cleaned regularly by local street cleaners (who also clean up right away after the horse drawn carriages). I think it's more of a social thing here where they smoke a little bit during the day, and a helluva lot at the restaurant/bar/disco when a drink is in hand. Hopefully my roommate doesn't smoke.
I'm getting good at saying: Nie mowie po polsku! and Czy pani mowi po angielsku?
Milo mi!
Jeronimo!
!btw, if you'd rather not get my Poland Spam, just let me know. I'll just let you know when it's up and running on my website so I don't flood your inbox.
Friday, July 30, 2004
Dzien dobry pan i pani! (long one!)
I made it!
First off, British Airways and Amtrak can't compare. Trains are the way to go! Dad, you were right about the tight seats!No sleep across the Atlantic, one hour sleep London to Warsaw. But I did get to see Hellboy on the flight, pretty good until the end. Breezed through customs, so much so that I think I'm here illegally! I was out in 2 seconds, nothing was asked or checked?
I then caught a Mafia Taxi to Warszawa Centralna train station. He average 90 k/h, ran 2 red lights, nearly hit 3 pedestrians and almost side swiped 2 cars and a large truck. I hoped to learn some Polish swear words from him, but he only repeated them when yelling. Needless to say, I was the only one wearing a seatbelt! Another guy helped me with my massive TNF duffles (27 kilos each! That's 60 pounds...each) into the train station and helped me get a ticket to the right train to Krakow. I couldn't tell how legit he was but I have him 7 zloty (zwo-tee) for his efforts (peanuts).I wasn't going to give him any of my bills, and especially not pull out my small bundle of recently traded money. The money here is smaller than US dollars, and as usual, of varying colors of blue, red and green. I'll send pics if I can some day.
The baggage helper was actually correct on which platform and track the train was at. I shared the platform with a 3 generation family from Toronto, who wer originallyy from Poland. The mother in the middle didn't have many positive things to say about Warsaw. She said it's much less safe now, in fact on, their way from the airport to the station a few men tried taking their luggage from them!I stuck with them and their mass baggage as the platform began to fill up with a variety of people. The nerve wracking thing was there were 3 men on an upper balcony who had been eyeing me like vultures, just waiting for the right time to strike. It was nice to hook up with the semi-Canadians-relying on the whole safety in numbers thing.
The train showed up on time and I had to find my car #9 and somehow get my 2 TNF pigs on to the train. The woman had told me there was supposedly a weight limit of 20 kg per bag and that anything bigger/heavier would have to go elsewhere and there'd be a fee for it. But we all agreed we'd rather not part with our baggage, at least not this close to Warsaw. Getting the bags on the train sucked. The whole time I kept thinking I should have shipped more of this crap, or not taken this or that to begin with. I'm much more seasoned in the mountains then with foreign travel, especially solo!
After much grunting and complaintive looks from other Poles, I finally found my small passenger cubby where my seat was, #53. I figured once you're in your cubby, you could sit anywhere. My bags were so big and wide that I could barely fit them through the doors or hallway. Now, managing to bring two of them, into a nearly full cubby, and lift these monsters over foreigners heads, and hope my bags don't come down and crush or kill anyone, and still act cordial...chalk one up for another interesting experience to never be repeated again!
Fortunately, the folks in the train car were great. I asked in Polish if anyone spoke English and they all shook their heads. There were 6 of us in the car, 3 facing the other 3. My bags were set to either kill or break the legs of the eldest Pol, who I think was the mother of the girl across from her, and her legs would have snapped in half if she kept resting them on the opposite seat. Ouch, this was a sight I really didn't want to see! Everyone was very nice and had a lot of fun at my expense, trying to pronunciate phrases correctly out of one of my books. The rest of the group were all younger than me, and they all seemed to be heading south or east of Krakow. Apparently, none of them lived in Warsaw, though I never found out where they were coming from (Gdansk up on the coast, maybe?).
A young girl who spoke the least to me, apparently did speak English. Near the end of my part of the train ride she translated for everyone what I was doing. She said I was crazy for leaving America, crazy for leaving TNF, and had a really hard time understanding why I never worked for Microsoft! Also, they couldn't understand me moving to Poland, either...
I dozed a bit on and off on the train, keeping my wrist wrapped through my daypack just in case, though I really didn't expect any problems with my cubby mates. After about 2 hours from Warszawa, the flat terrain began to grow into more creative shapes. The whole while, Poland's landscape reminded me of the midwest. It was very fertile, well manicured farms and dense trees wherever they were growing. Every house and farm was of modest size, even in the more urban areas we went through. Nothing resembled a shack, everything was solid, usually brick and the roofs were all in good shape. Scattered about I did see some cattle, but mostly it was vegetable and wheat farms. The occasional power sub station would pop up, too. They didn't look as tightly packed as ours, plus I didn't see any security fences around them either. Local kids must get into some shocking adventures!
As the train headed south up the uplift towards the Tatra mountains, we pulled into Krakow. This station was more hospitable and way less smelly than the Warsaw one. Two of the guys in my cabin were kind enough to help me with my bags, out the train doors and onto the platform. I thanked them profusely 'Dziekuje bardzo' for their efforts. The tall skinny red head told me his name was Alex and I have no idea what town he said he was from. Nice kid.
The next wave of entertainment was provided by me. For some stupid reason, Krakow's station doesn't have carts anywhere! I hoisted one duffel on my back, put the overloaded day pack on my chest and then dragged the 2nd pig behind me. For once, I was actually wishing I had my sled from Denali (I take back all that swearing, dear sled!). The train was waiting for it's next departure. So as I hobbled and groveled with my nasty load, all the train riders got to watch me with a mixture of black humor and disbelief. As I tugged, tugged, tugged on the duffel, the handle started ripping out. I think this was the third or fourth time this trip I was really wishing I had brought a wheeled duffle...grab one if you can, Jill! Fortunately, it didn't rip completely.
I got help from a nice girl, named Irene, from the 'Strawberry Hostel'. She was trying to get me to stay with them, but I told her about my reservations and it's proximity to the school...Strawberry was in the boonies, though looked nice in the pics. She understood, but her and her cohorts still helped me with my luggage and even got a taxi for me. The taxi ride wasn't nearly as exciting, but he still almost ran over 2 pedestrians! I checked into the stylingly decrepit Hotel Zaczek and got my room on the 4th floor. It's actually a dormitory, open to the public during summer. Thankfully, they had an elevator!
My room is small and simple, with a small bed, two tables and a sink. Fortunately the window opened, as it was hot and muggy. I was in and settled by 5:15 PM Wednesday. The rain had started and was picking up momentum. With as little sleep I'd had, I figured I'd stay in and rest rather than tromp around in the gloomy rain as night approached.I think I was out by 5:30.
Today I walked to my future school, International House. I met Sarah who I'd been corresponding with about the course. It turns out she's from Oak Park, Illinois! She's out here on a 3 month internship, helping the school with admin stuff. She provided me with a tour of the school (about 4 rooms, including the cafe) and answered numerous questions for me about Krakow. She loves it here and doesn't want to go back to the states. She also studied abroad in London a few years ago, so she has the travel bug.
I don't have it yet, so I went for a walk to the Rynek market and the huge main square. The buildings, materials, colors and scale are very different from Greece and Italy (the only other 2 countryies I've been besides Canada, eh). The square has a huge, long mercantile building, kind of like a century old McCormick Place (Chicago). As huge as the structure is, the internal shopping area was pretty narrow. Scattered about the square is a massive clock tower (rotting brick and stone), St. Mary's cathedral (mostly brick, in slightly better shape) and a bizarre little basilica (moldy stone and brick, this time white not red), the size of a small house. I haven't read enough of the history yet, but it seems the Romans hadn't made a millitary camp here. Central 'Old' Krakow is on a grid, but it's on a diagonal, not the classic N, S, E, W grid that Caesar proliferated across this part of the globe. There's tourons everywhere, mostly from Europe. I think I've heard only one American accent on this trip, and that was Sarah's. I did see a girl's Canadian team. Four of them were running almost full bore through the square, a shot I'm upset I missed (I just pocketed the camera, too). They regrouped with the rest of their team, and I have no idea what sport they play.
The rain continued and then it poured, hence why you're reading this long message from me now (bring back memories from the 'stans, Pookins?). I'm at U Louisa, Krakow's oldest internet cafe, just off the square. I'm in a cellar, with huge brick and mortar vaulted ceilings, pleasing, mellow, modern music and my choice of beverage all for about $2-$3/hour.
I hope not to bore you with so much info in the future. Just wanted to let you know I made it in one piece. Not bad for a newby, eh?
Do zobaczenia
See you later!
First off, British Airways and Amtrak can't compare. Trains are the way to go! Dad, you were right about the tight seats!No sleep across the Atlantic, one hour sleep London to Warsaw. But I did get to see Hellboy on the flight, pretty good until the end. Breezed through customs, so much so that I think I'm here illegally! I was out in 2 seconds, nothing was asked or checked?
I then caught a Mafia Taxi to Warszawa Centralna train station. He average 90 k/h, ran 2 red lights, nearly hit 3 pedestrians and almost side swiped 2 cars and a large truck. I hoped to learn some Polish swear words from him, but he only repeated them when yelling. Needless to say, I was the only one wearing a seatbelt! Another guy helped me with my massive TNF duffles (27 kilos each! That's 60 pounds...each) into the train station and helped me get a ticket to the right train to Krakow. I couldn't tell how legit he was but I have him 7 zloty (zwo-tee) for his efforts (peanuts).I wasn't going to give him any of my bills, and especially not pull out my small bundle of recently traded money. The money here is smaller than US dollars, and as usual, of varying colors of blue, red and green. I'll send pics if I can some day.
The baggage helper was actually correct on which platform and track the train was at. I shared the platform with a 3 generation family from Toronto, who wer originallyy from Poland. The mother in the middle didn't have many positive things to say about Warsaw. She said it's much less safe now, in fact on, their way from the airport to the station a few men tried taking their luggage from them!I stuck with them and their mass baggage as the platform began to fill up with a variety of people. The nerve wracking thing was there were 3 men on an upper balcony who had been eyeing me like vultures, just waiting for the right time to strike. It was nice to hook up with the semi-Canadians-relying on the whole safety in numbers thing.
The train showed up on time and I had to find my car #9 and somehow get my 2 TNF pigs on to the train. The woman had told me there was supposedly a weight limit of 20 kg per bag and that anything bigger/heavier would have to go elsewhere and there'd be a fee for it. But we all agreed we'd rather not part with our baggage, at least not this close to Warsaw. Getting the bags on the train sucked. The whole time I kept thinking I should have shipped more of this crap, or not taken this or that to begin with. I'm much more seasoned in the mountains then with foreign travel, especially solo!
After much grunting and complaintive looks from other Poles, I finally found my small passenger cubby where my seat was, #53. I figured once you're in your cubby, you could sit anywhere. My bags were so big and wide that I could barely fit them through the doors or hallway. Now, managing to bring two of them, into a nearly full cubby, and lift these monsters over foreigners heads, and hope my bags don't come down and crush or kill anyone, and still act cordial...chalk one up for another interesting experience to never be repeated again!
Fortunately, the folks in the train car were great. I asked in Polish if anyone spoke English and they all shook their heads. There were 6 of us in the car, 3 facing the other 3. My bags were set to either kill or break the legs of the eldest Pol, who I think was the mother of the girl across from her, and her legs would have snapped in half if she kept resting them on the opposite seat. Ouch, this was a sight I really didn't want to see! Everyone was very nice and had a lot of fun at my expense, trying to pronunciate phrases correctly out of one of my books. The rest of the group were all younger than me, and they all seemed to be heading south or east of Krakow. Apparently, none of them lived in Warsaw, though I never found out where they were coming from (Gdansk up on the coast, maybe?).
A young girl who spoke the least to me, apparently did speak English. Near the end of my part of the train ride she translated for everyone what I was doing. She said I was crazy for leaving America, crazy for leaving TNF, and had a really hard time understanding why I never worked for Microsoft! Also, they couldn't understand me moving to Poland, either...
I dozed a bit on and off on the train, keeping my wrist wrapped through my daypack just in case, though I really didn't expect any problems with my cubby mates. After about 2 hours from Warszawa, the flat terrain began to grow into more creative shapes. The whole while, Poland's landscape reminded me of the midwest. It was very fertile, well manicured farms and dense trees wherever they were growing. Every house and farm was of modest size, even in the more urban areas we went through. Nothing resembled a shack, everything was solid, usually brick and the roofs were all in good shape. Scattered about I did see some cattle, but mostly it was vegetable and wheat farms. The occasional power sub station would pop up, too. They didn't look as tightly packed as ours, plus I didn't see any security fences around them either. Local kids must get into some shocking adventures!
As the train headed south up the uplift towards the Tatra mountains, we pulled into Krakow. This station was more hospitable and way less smelly than the Warsaw one. Two of the guys in my cabin were kind enough to help me with my bags, out the train doors and onto the platform. I thanked them profusely 'Dziekuje bardzo' for their efforts. The tall skinny red head told me his name was Alex and I have no idea what town he said he was from. Nice kid.
The next wave of entertainment was provided by me. For some stupid reason, Krakow's station doesn't have carts anywhere! I hoisted one duffel on my back, put the overloaded day pack on my chest and then dragged the 2nd pig behind me. For once, I was actually wishing I had my sled from Denali (I take back all that swearing, dear sled!). The train was waiting for it's next departure. So as I hobbled and groveled with my nasty load, all the train riders got to watch me with a mixture of black humor and disbelief. As I tugged, tugged, tugged on the duffel, the handle started ripping out. I think this was the third or fourth time this trip I was really wishing I had brought a wheeled duffle...grab one if you can, Jill! Fortunately, it didn't rip completely.
I got help from a nice girl, named Irene, from the 'Strawberry Hostel'. She was trying to get me to stay with them, but I told her about my reservations and it's proximity to the school...Strawberry was in the boonies, though looked nice in the pics. She understood, but her and her cohorts still helped me with my luggage and even got a taxi for me. The taxi ride wasn't nearly as exciting, but he still almost ran over 2 pedestrians! I checked into the stylingly decrepit Hotel Zaczek and got my room on the 4th floor. It's actually a dormitory, open to the public during summer. Thankfully, they had an elevator!
My room is small and simple, with a small bed, two tables and a sink. Fortunately the window opened, as it was hot and muggy. I was in and settled by 5:15 PM Wednesday. The rain had started and was picking up momentum. With as little sleep I'd had, I figured I'd stay in and rest rather than tromp around in the gloomy rain as night approached.I think I was out by 5:30.
Today I walked to my future school, International House. I met Sarah who I'd been corresponding with about the course. It turns out she's from Oak Park, Illinois! She's out here on a 3 month internship, helping the school with admin stuff. She provided me with a tour of the school (about 4 rooms, including the cafe) and answered numerous questions for me about Krakow. She loves it here and doesn't want to go back to the states. She also studied abroad in London a few years ago, so she has the travel bug.
I don't have it yet, so I went for a walk to the Rynek market and the huge main square. The buildings, materials, colors and scale are very different from Greece and Italy (the only other 2 countryies I've been besides Canada, eh). The square has a huge, long mercantile building, kind of like a century old McCormick Place (Chicago). As huge as the structure is, the internal shopping area was pretty narrow. Scattered about the square is a massive clock tower (rotting brick and stone), St. Mary's cathedral (mostly brick, in slightly better shape) and a bizarre little basilica (moldy stone and brick, this time white not red), the size of a small house. I haven't read enough of the history yet, but it seems the Romans hadn't made a millitary camp here. Central 'Old' Krakow is on a grid, but it's on a diagonal, not the classic N, S, E, W grid that Caesar proliferated across this part of the globe. There's tourons everywhere, mostly from Europe. I think I've heard only one American accent on this trip, and that was Sarah's. I did see a girl's Canadian team. Four of them were running almost full bore through the square, a shot I'm upset I missed (I just pocketed the camera, too). They regrouped with the rest of their team, and I have no idea what sport they play.
The rain continued and then it poured, hence why you're reading this long message from me now (bring back memories from the 'stans, Pookins?). I'm at U Louisa, Krakow's oldest internet cafe, just off the square. I'm in a cellar, with huge brick and mortar vaulted ceilings, pleasing, mellow, modern music and my choice of beverage all for about $2-$3/hour.
I hope not to bore you with so much info in the future. Just wanted to let you know I made it in one piece. Not bad for a newby, eh?
Do zobaczenia
See you later!
Saturday, July 24, 2004
Thursday, July 22, 2004
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