Czestochowa, Family, and Zakopane.

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So on the 20th of June, my uncle Marian took Jeff and I to Czestochowa, where the black Madonna is. I'm not going to lie, we were a little scared to go with him because he doesn't really have the most easily-understandable way of speaking Polish. Nonetheless, we agreed that we'd go with him in his car, and it actually paid off. He knew exactly where to go, from the church itself, to the chapel, the church tower, and the treasury. Jeff and I both agreed that the treasury they had here was a lot better than the one at Wawel. The church itself was beautiful--probably the prettiest church I've ever seen. However, the actual black Madonna is covered by some piece of engraved gold, so you can't actually see it at all. I must say, I'm a bit ashamed at the fact that we wanted, at one point, to skip Czestochowa altogether: it was definitely worth the two-hour trip.

By this time, Marian was definitely growing on us: he knew that we wanted to take pictures every two seconds, and he even offered to take some of us. Another really nice thing that he did was buy me a rosary and Jeff a chain with a cross on it. We got them blessed, at his request, and afterward he told us that now the devil was out of us and we could pray. Hoorah!! On the way back home, we stopped at some road-side restaurant which Jeff and I assumed would suck. However, after Marian ordered our food for us, we soon found out that road-side restaurants in Poland are rather good.

Once we got back to Krakow, we went to Marian's house in Nowa Huta (which was the first communist sector of town that was built during the communist-era in Poland), and his wife fed us more Polish food. Finally, we headed to the countryside to visit some of my family. We saw Marian's brother and wife, and (two of their) three sons, as well as their grandmother. Unfortunately, I don't really think I know how these people are related to me or their names, but I think that the father of those three men is Baba's nephew. After that, we went to see Jozia(??), and her family. We saw Anita and her husband and little boy, Wojtek, as well as Lucasz and Iwona. I really sort of liked hanging out with them, even though we couldn't really speak to each other very well. They're nice people and when you walk into their house, you just feel comfortable and invited.

I have to say that after visiting with these family members, regardless of the fact that I don't really know how close I am to them, or even some of their names, I was pretty sad. I'm not sure why, but I think it was a mixture of how and where they live, the fact that I probably won't see them for another ten years or more, and that they seem to be so interested in us and the way we live, and we don't think of them enough. Regardless of the reasoning, I did cry in the car a bit, though I think only Jeff noticed. Baba and mom, everyone wants you to write more and come visit soon. Just so you know.

Anyway, after the country, we came back home and bought some beer and candy at our local BP gas station. Then we went to sleep.

The next day, the 21st, Wednesday, we went to Zakopane with Marian and his wife. We saw the big lake in the middle of the Tatry mountains, called Morskie Oko, and we went up Guba Lowka on a train thing. It was 1123 meters high, and we walked around up there and took lots of pictures. Later, we walked around Zakopane, bought some Oscypki (sheep's cheese, which is really really good), and finally went back home.

Today was Jeff and my day to chill in Krakow ourselves. We went to a cafe for a coffee and had a apple-roll thing for breakfast. Later, we walked around Jagiellonian University and got bored because we had no idea what the buildings were. Then, we went to Kosciol Mariacki and we climbed up the church tower, to where the trumpeteer plays. Fortunately, we went up just in time for him to play to the courtyard below, so I took a short video of it, and some pictures of him playing. That was pretty cool. Next was Sukiennice, where we bought a few souveniers. Later tonight, we're meeting Basia and some of her family for a goodbye dinner, and then tomorrow it's off to Warszawa and Oki Doki Hostel.

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Comments

[iza]

hey there!
Sounds like your trip is going well! Call me when you get into Warsaw 698 344 102. Pozdrawiam, iza