Krakov

(Translation: Krakow)

I know that it has been a week since I was in Krakow, and I am very behind, but I definitely couldn't skip this city. You probably would rather hear about all of the adventures with Dad, but that will have to wait. I like order, especially chronological order, so Krakow it is.

I love Prague. Of all of the cities I have visited so far, there hasn't been a single one in which I would have rather studied. However, Krakow did come close. In retrospect, I don't think that I could study there because it was so small. and we did do the entire city in a day, but it was definitely a great place.

We left on Friday with the whole program. The bus ride took us 8 hours, so we didn't get in until Friday night. When we got there all we wanted was dinner. I had been looking forward to dinner in Krakow for weeks because it meant we would get real pierogi. I was excited 'cause I haven't had true pierogi (or "petahair") since Baba passed away. **I searched everywhere online to find the correct spelling/name of "petahair," and was unsuccessful. All I found was that technically the Ukrainian version is spelt "pyrohy," so I don't really understand how we've been pronouncing it all of these years. If anyone could clarify (ahem, Grandma?), I would love an explanation!**

Anyway, we had an EXCELLENT meal of real pierogi Friday night. Then we had a couple scoops of gelato and went out and explored Poland. The best part of Friday night was that I bought dinner, ice cream, and a few refreshments all for under twenty USD! The Polish currency was called the Zloty, which means "gold," but which is fun to say and gave us some laughs. The exchange rate was great too, which made us love it even more.

Saturday our program took us on a couple of long walking tours of the city. It was so small that we saw basically the entire thing. At night we went to a Georgian Restaurant for dinner. I was pretty excited because it's not every day that you see a Georgian Restaurant, and I have a friend in the Peace Corps in Georgia, so it was a great chance to try the food she's eating. (For those of you who don't know, Georgian food isn't grits and fried chicken. She's in Georgia the country, so it was these rich flat breads and cheese and other interesting foods.) Anyway, we loved our dinner and shopping in the Town Square in Krakow, so it was a good day.

Sunday we visited Auschwitz and Birkenau. I am just going to leave it at that.

My pictures from Krakow aren't up yet, but they're coming; I promise! There aren't many, because there weren't a ton of sights in Krakow, but I still loved it!

I did put up a bunch of pictures the other day from a ton of different random things over the last few weeks, so I hope you enjoy them.

There is a city in Europe where I can get dinner, dessert, and good refreshments for under $20=why I am never coming home.