Happy Christmas 2007, Happy New Year 2008 from Krakow

We are days away from the new year 2008, and I'm not sure if it is my age showing, but looking back at this year, and looking ahead at the coming year, has me a bit sentimental. Much "out of the ordinary" has happened to Keith and I during the last 6 months of 2007. As we are planning our trips for the first part of this year, we can't believe our good fortune! The sentimental part is easy to explain, Katie was here for Christmas, she celebrated her birthday by traveling 19 hours to Poland! (A delayed flight added several extra hours to her travel time.) She was here 4 days before flying back to America. Our holiday with Hank consisted only of telephone calls. But the whole family was in 3 time zones instead of 4. Speaking of whole family, Keith still hasn't been able to contact two sisters, only the operator who says "all curcuits are busy"! There are lot of miles between each of us, which is why this little blog helps Keith and I feel some what connected to you all. (In a weird cyber-way) So let me share with y'all Katie's short visit to Krakow...









We walked everywhere! and it was cold. Although we hadn't seen blue sky in days, maybe weeks, the sun came out and we had a cloudless nite sky that allowed the full moon to shine on us!! We did have a white Christmas! No snow fell on us, our snow has been on the ground two weeks. No chance of it melting away, it's sort of wearing away. Decided not to take day trips out of town to Auschwitz or Zakopane. Katie could use a day to recover from the flight, Keith still had to go to work (yep, someone has to) and we wanted to relax. So with just four days, that's just what we did, spent time together, with no side trips. As is "the tradition" we put in our dvd of the old movie White Christmas, and sang along, or sort of hummed along, while we worked on a puzzle. And ate too much. Christmas supper will be one of those memorable meals. It was awful! I can't and don't cook, so I bought soup and pierogis from the grocery store for our traditional Christmas Eve meal. Yuck! Poor Katie, and Keith! Our other meals, in all of our favorite places, hopefully made up for this one!





We introduced her to the historical Krakow, walked through the castle grounds, visited St. Mary's to see the intricate altar, walked over to Kazimierz so she could see the Jewish quarter and imagine the pre-war era. While there we stopped in a gallery and purchased our Nativity. Outsider art or "art naive" is this gallery's specialty, and the owner gave Katie a small carved bird. He invited us to his home to see his vast collection of polish folk art, and we will at another time! Unfortunately she didn't get to meet our new acquaintances. Being Christmas vacation, the other International Paper Ex-Pats are back in their home countries, and the folks around here had all gone to their families. In fact, the town felt empty! The Christmas Market was still going and we enjoyed looking at all the stuff they had to offer. Our favorite treat was the ice cream, which we ate in the new mall, not exactly a historical experience. So I took Katie and Keith to one of the oldest establishments, Jama Michalika, an Art Noveau cafe from 1895, which was the gathering place for Krakow's "young artist". She and I checked out the old market across town. Much different from the mall, in it's patrons as well as the surroundings. I only found it when my language teacher told me about it.





Maybe Katie will be back in warmer weather, stay longer, and we'll see more of the wonderful places that Poland has to offer, like the Insurance Document museum!

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