Kraków

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I arrived at the Kraków airport, with the best welcome ever! Isabella, my best friend whom I haven't seen since JANUARY, jumped with surprise when she saw me and came running to me with a huge bear-hug! It felt as if we hadn't talked nor seen each other in ages, yet we were still as great as friends as when we departed from Houston back in January! We immediately changed money, which was exciting because with 50€ I received 150 Złoty (Polish money otherwise noted by PLN)! We then proceeded to catch a free shuttle to the train... which lasted all of less than two minutes. We then got on the train where I was surprised by the ability to purchase the ticket ON BOARD. Much, much easier than the Italian system. From here we went into Kraków, and managed the tram system (of which I was also pleasantly surprised by the ease...). We arrived at our hostel, and immediately went to a restaurant in the Jewish district as I hadn't eaten all day, and Isabella had a pretty decent appetite as well! Oh it was a wonderful thing to not eat pasta!!!! While I love the Italian cuisine... day in and day out for 6 months now, the flavors of Polish food reminded me of dinners with Isabella (go figure) and eating my momma's czech-american cooking (although Iza is pretty sure that it is heavily influenced by Polish cuisine). We both dined on Barszcz (or Borsch) soup, which is a soup made with beets... so I have a nice bowl of BRIGHT RED soup in front of me. We ate it a hard boiled egg thrown in to give it some substance. Then, Isa dined on Pierogi ruskie, which I can best describe as a polish ravioli, and absolutely delish! and I on gołabki, which is basically a cabbage roll, which when you literally translate from Polish to English, they would be called piegons... yum yum yum.
From here we went to the grocery store to buy some supplies! red currant juice know as Czarna Porzeczka in Poland, and a type of vodka made with honey, afterwhich we started our walk to the Castle Wawel and to the river close to it. On the way we made sure to squeeze in some bad coffee, however we made up for it by making it to the hill, sitting down and relaxing, watching the sunset enjoying our supplies from the grocery store, along with some cookies Iza had brought along.
Once we finished up with the sunset, we walked into the Old Town Square, which was filled with lots of stands with different food (ranging from a huge cast iron pot filled sauerkraut down to some cinnamon sugar covered cashews, as well as other typical Polish products, using lots of amber or wood. We sat down at a cafe to enjoy some hot tea and a huge drinking-chocolate, which was basically melted chocolate in a cup! but with a hint of orange flavoring! It was yummy, but even Iza and I together couldn't finish it! After all of this and some walking around, we finally decided to call it a night, and made our way back to the hostel to sleep!

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Photos

Bright Red Borsch Soup!
It was really good, despite the fact that it was sooo bright!

mmmm!
polish food! a far cry from pasta everyday!

View from the Castle
The view we had of the sunset

Beautiful Iza
With the castle behind!

moi at the castle
thank you Iza for your excellent photography skills

Old Town Square
This was Iza's idea, but you have the main church in the background, with a food stand in the foreground

we couldn't help it
and we got some candied cashews

Sauerkraut
Never seen so much at once...

Chocolate!
mmm very good!