Blogs from Lesser Poland, Poland, Europe - page 71

Imagine the way Bill Murry (sp) says it in City Slickers. I'm on vacation, but tomorrow is testing day. 90 minutes of listening comprehension, writing, and an oral part. I was so tired today after class (and as a procrastination move) that I went home and took a 2 hour nap. mmmmm... I guess part of it is my own fault for not studying as hard as I should and going out practically every afternoon to have fun. :-p I am having a lot of fun here. Here are some pix to get you going while I go and study for my test (yeay right), and when I get more time I'll write about what I have done. ... read more

Here are some pictures from the past few days, beginning from the bus ride into Poland. The themes are: 1. Weird stuff I see in the streets. Did you know that Krakowians (?) can park on the sidewalk? Yup, they drive the cars right up the sidewalk and leave a bit of room for the pedestrians. These two street signs, from what I can gather, say a. park all the way onto the sidewalk and b. park half in the street, half on the sidewalk. And then that light tree with 9 lights, that's just crazy. How do you know which one is for you?? 2. Architectural shots, including details, arches, doorways, and portals. The nighttime shot of the town square Clothing Hall... there's no way to get the whole thing so I only have a ... read more

I shall write about some of the nice Poles that I have met since arriving in Poland to balance out the negativity from my previous post. 1. When I wanted to get my monthly tram pass, I had to first get a passport sized photo taken. One of my fellow classmates had a flier that was for a photo place that had a special deal going on, 8 pix for 9 zlotys. That's about a quarter a pix. So I went to that shop. The man was very nice. He took care of the other customers and then when it was my turn, he shot 4 pix and let me pick the one I wanted. Next day when I went back, I saw him helping another lady who had her picture taken and he was photoshopping ... read more

I'm in Krakow now. It's not pronounced like "crack-cow" or "crack-cov", it's more like "crack-koo-f". Ooookay... I left Tallinn, Estonia by bus last Saturday and we bumped, swayed, and finally rolled our way into Warsaw (which sounds like var-zah-va??) after 16 hours. 16 hours!! That's longer than the flight from Thailand to Finland! I was feelin' so icky when I finally got off the bus, but it wasn't like, oh yeay, let me kiss the ground, I'm finally in Poland, it was more like, oh crap, so this is Poland? Oops. I'm already knocking Poland in my first post, my bad. So during that 16 hour ride, let me tell ya, a lot of NADA happened. First of all, the Lonely Planet guide book was wrong. There's noooooo food being sold on the bus. One's gotta ... read more

Krakow is the new Prague. I've heard this uttered many times from circles of pretentious and self-righteous back packers. Once a legendary secret on the backpacker trail, Prague got cool. Now, Prague is the place for British stag parties and inexperienced Gappers. The two cities share many things; cheap beer, cobbled streets, magnificent architecture, beautiful women, cold weather and fur coats. The difference is in the air. In Prague the air is electric. In Krakow the air is cold with blowing snow. The women smile less, the hobos have skinnier dogs, and the expats are few and far between. The saving grace of Krakow is Nathan's Villa Hostel. A place routinely voted by travel guides and web sites as one of the top 10 hostels worldwide. A mini cinema, basement bar, theme rooms, and free breakfast ... read more