The students who did this program in Krakow last year weren't kidding when they told us that all of our work would pile up at the end of the semester!!! I've got to buckle down for the next week and half and tackle my mountain of schoolwork, but when I come out at the other end I'll be taking off for two weeks or so of travel and then back to the States! So I'm currently sitting in my favorite cafe, Les Coleurs on the main market square in Kazimierz, enjoying a near-constant supply of coffee and little sugary cookie-wafers while I do my schoolwork using their wonderfully free wireless internet!
The end of the parents visit went well. We got back from the mountains a day earlier than expected (long story there involving good ol' Polish organization and our professors' failure to realize that Brad, Rachel, and I DID need to go to class on Monday) and Mom and Dad settled back into a hotel room in my building. Monday morning we headed into the center city and Mom and I did some souvenir/gift shopping in the stalls in the Sukiennice, a super old building that's been around since the middle ages and used to be the cloth merchants' hall. Dad found a good seat on the base of Adam Mickiewicz's (famous Polish poet) monument in the main square and buried himself in Michener's Poland. I had to go to class at 12:30 and left them eating their lunches (delicious kebab) in the Planty (the park that encircles the old city and was the defensive moat in the middle ages). I'm not entirely sure what they did while I was in class. I think some wandering around the Planty/outskirts of the old city looking at the monuments and buildings that are highlighted in my Krakow guidebook. We met up after class to catch a tour bus to the Wieliczka salt mine, which I saw in February and thought was a must-see for the parents. They enjoyed it, although Mom got huffy about our tour guide's misrepresentation of Copernicus' contribution to science. The tour guide said that he proved that the sun is the center of the solar system, but as Mom proceeded to explain (at great length) over dinner later, Copernicus only developed a good (not perfectly accurate) model that didn't prove anything. The equipment/knowledge, etc. required to actually prove the heliocentric model wasn't developed until much later. I like having brilliant, nerdy parents, although it does mean that I'm subjected to lectures over dinner. :)
Tuesday was another good day. Mom and Dad were on their own for a lot of it, since I did some homework in the morning and they went to Wawel to see the royal aparments, tickets to which had been sold out when they were at Wawel last week. I had class in the middle of the day while they tried to see the archeological museum...it has a fantastic exhibit on the people who lived in the Krakow area during prehistorical periods. But that museum has the weirdest hours and is only open until 2 on most days so they missed it! After my class and their tour of Wawel, we met in the Planty and went Kopiec Kosciuszko, Kosciuszko's mound. It's a mound of dirt constructed in the 1800s on a hill a little bit to the southwest of the city center to commemorate Kosciuszko for leading the 1794 uprisings against the major powers of Europe. Unfortunately, Kosciuszko's uprising failed and Poland ceased to exist on the maps of Europe in 1795 when it was divided by Prussia, Austria, and Russia, only appearing again after World War I. The mound incorporates dirt from every battlefield where he fought. The mound itself is a well-developed tourist destination with a restaurant and hotel built into the fortifications that the Austrians constructed around it when they had control of Krakow. The main reason for going is the view from the top of the mound, which is a gorgeous panorama of Krakow. We could pick out the main downtown markers: Wawel castle, Kosciol Mariacki on the main market square, the church of Sts. Peter and Paul on Grodzka Street which runs south from the main square to the castle. We could also see my dorm and it was fun to trace out my walking-route to various destinations. It also gave Mom and Dad a great idea of the layout of the city. Oh, and it was cool to see Nova Huta (the giant steelworks that were a huge Communist project in the middle of the 20th century) although it was pretty obscured by smog. I'd learned about Krakow's air being incredibly polluted by industry under Communist rule, but hadn't noticed it on day-to-day basis until I was that high up above the city...it didn't seem to bad, though and is certainly MUCH better than it used to be! Oh, the one other thing that struck me was how green the city is. Again, I'd always heard that Krakow is the greenest city in eastern Europe and one of the greenest in all of Europe, but didn't fully realize what that meant until I was that high. It really looked to me more like a city growing in a forest than trees growing in a city. Yay!
We really didn't have long at the mound, only about a half hour, and then we dashed back to the main square to make a 7 pm Chopin concert in one of the palaces fronting the square. The pianist was a Japanese grad school student studying piano in Krakow and played beautifully. I always forget how difficult Chopin is but when I see it performed I remember how impossible it is! Her performance was incredible. After the concert we ate dinner at a restaurant called Babcia Malina which serves great traditional Polish food.
Wednesday morning was departure morning for Mom and Dad, so we all got up early and went to the airport. I loaded them down with an extra bag that they checked for me, since I'll be going home with much more than I came with!
So it was great to have them here, as I told Dad in an email today...a little taste of home in Krakow.
Now I should probably get back to my schoolwork! Rachel just joined me in the cafe and we're going to reciprocally and strictly enforce study-discipline.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Rodzice w Krakowie (that might mean "parents in Krakow!")
The parental visit is going really well, minus some inconveniences related to the weekend we just spent at a mountain lodge in the Tatra Mountains... Fun weekend that involved a bit more walking than we'd originally been told and no private bathroom in each room (Mom's pet peeve). We did all enjoy the mountain atmosphere, though, and went on a lovely hike on Saturday! Mom, Dad and Professor McGarity ( the Swarthmore professor who runs the program) turned back after 4.5 km or so and a long mountain climb to spend a relaxing afternoon in the lodge. The kids and our Politechnika professor from Krakow proceeded on for a total of 22-ish km along a beautiful ridge and a strenuous climb to a real PEAK. Fantastic.
Other than our 2 days in the mountains, Mom and Dad have been doing all the tourist-y things in Krakow. A few museums, the royal castle (Wawel), walks around various parts of the city to admire the architecture, and today a trip to the huge salt mine in Wieliczka.
Oops, these pictures are in backwards order...
Professor McGarity and Dad playing radio.
The Group! Dad, Mom, Professor McGarity in the black hat and Professor Dabrowski from Politechnika in the tan hat and white shirt. And the back of Brad's head in the right side of the picture.
Dad and an energy advertisement in the main market square. There are all sorts of billboards up that have to do with the upcoming election for EU parliament. This one basically said "where do you want your energy coming from? VOTE"
Pigeon with a ring of bread around its neck that I saw in Kazimierz.
Dad and an old-fashioned post carriage in the main market square. I think they were selling postcards or something inside.
Other than our 2 days in the mountains, Mom and Dad have been doing all the tourist-y things in Krakow. A few museums, the royal castle (Wawel), walks around various parts of the city to admire the architecture, and today a trip to the huge salt mine in Wieliczka.
Oops, these pictures are in backwards order...
Professor McGarity and Dad playing radio.
The Group! Dad, Mom, Professor McGarity in the black hat and Professor Dabrowski from Politechnika in the tan hat and white shirt. And the back of Brad's head in the right side of the picture.
Dad and an energy advertisement in the main market square. There are all sorts of billboards up that have to do with the upcoming election for EU parliament. This one basically said "where do you want your energy coming from? VOTE"
Pigeon with a ring of bread around its neck that I saw in Kazimierz.
Dad and an old-fashioned post carriage in the main market square. I think they were selling postcards or something inside.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Procrastination!
I thought I'd hop on here for a brief post as I take a break from finishing up a paper due tomorrow...
Mom and Dad arrived Tuesday evening for their week-long visit here! I picked them up at the airport and we took a taxi into the old city for a stop at the 24-hour pierogi restaurant on Sławkowska street. On Wednesday they went to an art/Polish history museum (the Czartoryski) and had some time to explore the old city on their own while I was in class. We decided to go to a tiny chamber music concert in one of the churches in the main square on the spur of the moment. Fantastic concert and in the cutest Catholic church I've ever seen. It's absolutely minuscule but of course sumptuously decorated.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Continuing with the Czech Republic...
Sunday morning (May 3rd) we woke up in Slavicin, which is in the southeastern part of the country. We spent the morning at Hostetin, a teeny tiny village of 280-ish people that's been basically taken over by a Brno-based environmental NGO called Veronika. The NGO helped the village fund the installation of a reed-bed wastewater treatment system - so amazing to see after learning about similar treatment methods in our ecological engineering course! The basic idea is to use natural processes in the secondary stage of wastewater treatment although the wastewater undergoes a typical primary stage. The advantage is that virtually no energy is used in the wastewater treatment process since the primary stage is usually mechanical - sieves, screening, etc. Our guide from the NGO said that the electrical costs of the mechanical treatment are about USD 10 per year, and they have to pay someone to come 4 times per year for an hour or two each time to make sure that the reed-bed is healthy. The reed-bed is basically a wetland, so the community also gets the aesthetic benefit of a 25 foot by 25 foot wetland. Oh, and I should add that all of the wastewater is underground and accessible by the roots of the plants. Our guide invited us to walk through the wetland. :) Totally cool!
The NGO also runs a small organic juice production facility in the village which produces the most delicious apple juice I've ever tasted. We got to try their plain apple juice, apple-beetroot, apple-mate, and apple-mint. All good, although the plain apple was my favorite followed by the surprisingly good apple-beetroot. The buildings constructed by the NGO (juice buildings, educational and hotel complex) are passive buildings. I'm not sure entirely what that means but they're really environmentally-friendly and efficient. The village also has a biomass incinerator that burns waste wood chips from the logging industry situated in the nearby moutains and and seed and pit husks from the slivovice (Czech brandy made from fruit seeds, etc.) production industry. Most of the heat energy consumed by the village during the winter is produced from this incinerator (so no fossil fuels used) and they turn it off in the summer when no one needs heat. Residents use electricity for hot water in the summer. I'm a little skeptical of how "green" biomass incineration is, though, since yes, you're recycling waste but you're still also releasing carbon dioxide and other polluting compounds to the atmosphere. I will agree that it's better than using nonrenewable fossil fuels, though.
After grabbing lunch, our luggage from the hotel in Slavicin, and a huge box of traditional Czech baked goods, we hopped on a train to Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. The train station in Slavicin was awesome - one tiny building next to the tracks in the middle of some crop fields. Nothing beats an afternoon in a warm, sun-filled train car with a box of chocolatey, sugary goodies - it reminded me of Harry Potter. We arrived in Brno by 7 pm and Zbynek took us to our hotel and oriented us on the city map before giong home to his family. We wandered around the city a little bit (the downtown is tiny!) and found a delicious dinner. Pork loin and veggies for me.
Monday morning (May 8th) we met Zbynek at his office in the Department of Environmental Studies at Masaryj University. We spent the morning basically learning about the program there and some of the projects the PhD students are working on, and then went for lunch at a delicious vegetarian restaurant. Rachel's a vegetarian and had been craving something a bit lighter than all the heavy Czech potatoes available in the countryside. After lunch, we spent the afternoon at an NGO (the Czech name is long and confusing) learning about their projects throughout the country. We had a little bit of time in the afternoon to wander around the city and do some sightseeing. Our first stop was a crypt in the old Capuchin monastery where the air conditions in the crypt over the centuries had mummified the bodies of the monks buried there. The museum display just had all the dead bodies out and visible, since the monks had been "buried" simply by laying them on the ground in the tombs and leaving them there. It was really creepy, but kind of cool. Our next stop was the main cathedral - beautiful! We climbed to the top of one of the belltowers to get a view of the city. Our final stop was a quick walk around the castle, although unfortunately we missed the closing time for the museums. We ate dinner at a great restaurant. The Czech name translated to "Green Cat!"
That's it for now. We're leaving soon for a weekend in the Pieniny mountains south of Krakow but not as south as the Tatra/Carpathian mountains. We're supposed to do some river-rafting tomorrow and some mountain biking on Sunday, weather permitting...the forecast calls for some drizzles on both days.
Sunday morning (May 3rd) we woke up in Slavicin, which is in the southeastern part of the country. We spent the morning at Hostetin, a teeny tiny village of 280-ish people that's been basically taken over by a Brno-based environmental NGO called Veronika. The NGO helped the village fund the installation of a reed-bed wastewater treatment system - so amazing to see after learning about similar treatment methods in our ecological engineering course! The basic idea is to use natural processes in the secondary stage of wastewater treatment although the wastewater undergoes a typical primary stage. The advantage is that virtually no energy is used in the wastewater treatment process since the primary stage is usually mechanical - sieves, screening, etc. Our guide from the NGO said that the electrical costs of the mechanical treatment are about USD 10 per year, and they have to pay someone to come 4 times per year for an hour or two each time to make sure that the reed-bed is healthy. The reed-bed is basically a wetland, so the community also gets the aesthetic benefit of a 25 foot by 25 foot wetland. Oh, and I should add that all of the wastewater is underground and accessible by the roots of the plants. Our guide invited us to walk through the wetland. :) Totally cool!
The NGO also runs a small organic juice production facility in the village which produces the most delicious apple juice I've ever tasted. We got to try their plain apple juice, apple-beetroot, apple-mate, and apple-mint. All good, although the plain apple was my favorite followed by the surprisingly good apple-beetroot. The buildings constructed by the NGO (juice buildings, educational and hotel complex) are passive buildings. I'm not sure entirely what that means but they're really environmentally-friendly and efficient. The village also has a biomass incinerator that burns waste wood chips from the logging industry situated in the nearby moutains and and seed and pit husks from the slivovice (Czech brandy made from fruit seeds, etc.) production industry. Most of the heat energy consumed by the village during the winter is produced from this incinerator (so no fossil fuels used) and they turn it off in the summer when no one needs heat. Residents use electricity for hot water in the summer. I'm a little skeptical of how "green" biomass incineration is, though, since yes, you're recycling waste but you're still also releasing carbon dioxide and other polluting compounds to the atmosphere. I will agree that it's better than using nonrenewable fossil fuels, though.
After grabbing lunch, our luggage from the hotel in Slavicin, and a huge box of traditional Czech baked goods, we hopped on a train to Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. The train station in Slavicin was awesome - one tiny building next to the tracks in the middle of some crop fields. Nothing beats an afternoon in a warm, sun-filled train car with a box of chocolatey, sugary goodies - it reminded me of Harry Potter. We arrived in Brno by 7 pm and Zbynek took us to our hotel and oriented us on the city map before giong home to his family. We wandered around the city a little bit (the downtown is tiny!) and found a delicious dinner. Pork loin and veggies for me.
Monday morning (May 8th) we met Zbynek at his office in the Department of Environmental Studies at Masaryj University. We spent the morning basically learning about the program there and some of the projects the PhD students are working on, and then went for lunch at a delicious vegetarian restaurant. Rachel's a vegetarian and had been craving something a bit lighter than all the heavy Czech potatoes available in the countryside. After lunch, we spent the afternoon at an NGO (the Czech name is long and confusing) learning about their projects throughout the country. We had a little bit of time in the afternoon to wander around the city and do some sightseeing. Our first stop was a crypt in the old Capuchin monastery where the air conditions in the crypt over the centuries had mummified the bodies of the monks buried there. The museum display just had all the dead bodies out and visible, since the monks had been "buried" simply by laying them on the ground in the tombs and leaving them there. It was really creepy, but kind of cool. Our next stop was the main cathedral - beautiful! We climbed to the top of one of the belltowers to get a view of the city. Our final stop was a quick walk around the castle, although unfortunately we missed the closing time for the museums. We ate dinner at a great restaurant. The Czech name translated to "Green Cat!"
That's it for now. We're leaving soon for a weekend in the Pieniny mountains south of Krakow but not as south as the Tatra/Carpathian mountains. We're supposed to do some river-rafting tomorrow and some mountain biking on Sunday, weather permitting...the forecast calls for some drizzles on both days.
Monday, May 11, 2009
So I guess I'll try to write a little about my trip to the Czech Republic, although I've missed a lot of important things from before then as well such as Innsbruck, Venice, and life in Krakow. Oops!
We caught a 6:50 AM (absurdly early) train on May 1st for the Czech Republic, and slept for the three hour ride until we arrived in Ostrava, the third largest city in the country and pretty close to the border with Poland. We had a bit of a panic when we got to Ostrava because I remembered from trips through the city on my way to and from Vienna that there are two train stations and we weren't sure if we were at the correct one. We tried asking a conductor on the platform after jumping off the train but he didn't know English or Polish (that was odd). Luckily though, a pretty sketchy-looking man approached us as we spoke with the conductor and turned out to be our guide in the Czech Republic! His name is Zbynek Ulćak, a professor of Environmental Studies at Masaryk University in Brno. We only saw him wear two shirts for the entire 6 days that we were with him - a blue/gray one that he would wear during the day and a forest green one in the evening when we would go to restaurants for dinner. Zbynek turned out to be one of the coolest men I've ever met. He knows absolutely everything there is to know about anything and turned out to be really personable and fun to spend time with.
Our first day we spent in Ostrava. In the morning we were at an old coal mine that had closed in 1991 and been turned into a museum/tourist attraction in '93. Our tour guide of the museum and mine was a guy named Daniel who was dressed kind of like a cowboy. He didn't have a hat, but he had the denim, the belt with a huge buckle, the leather boots, etc. The museum was located in the old miners' guild hall and had really nice exhibits with old machinery from the mines and some pretty cool models of machinery that were too large and cumbersome to be brought back aboveground. The tour of the mine itself was fun although similar to our tour of the Wieliczka salt mine in February. The only difference was that the coal mine still had huge pieces of machinery set up, some of which would even run so that we get some idea of the conditions of working in the mine - it was REALLY noisy!
We ate lunch in the old miner's pub after the tour and had our first taste of Czech food - pork in a delicious creamy sauce with a huge side of potatos. Rachel and I both had lemonade to drink (of course after the local beer, Ostravar) which is always an adventure in Europe since every place somehow interprets the idea differently. This one was a pink grapefruit drink with a hint of lemon and half of full of bits of fruit. Tasty, but not lemonade.
Our afternoon activity in Ostrava was a hike to the top of a huge slag heap a few kilometers from the city center. It's a hill, the highest one around, made of jumbled rock that had been excavated during the coal mining process at a nearby mine. The heap had later been covered with some topsoil and planted trees to make a beautiful green park of sorts, crisscrossed with trails for hiking and mountain-biking. The cool part about the heap is that all of the leftover bits of coal mixed in with the rock that were uneconomical to mine a few decades ago are slowly burning in the middle of the mound, creating places where the ground surface is really hot and steam and other gases are visibly escaping. Zbynek explained why the coal burns even though it's under a huge amount of rock: all of the smaller particles (including coal dust and small bits of coal) end up at the bottom center of the pile with the large rock ends up on the outside of the mound. The spaces between the large rocks allow air to enter the mound and a chimney-effect occurs where air is sucked in at the bottom and flows up and out through the top, providing a constant flow of oxygen that allows combustion. Anyway! There was a beautiful view of the city in all directions from the top of the heap, and the surrounding area was surprisingly almost entirely green. I thought it was great although also a little depressing or empowering when Zbynek informed us that all of the green we could see used to be industrial wasteland that has been since been planted under land reclamation plans. Zbynek kept emphasizing that nature is better at reclaiming landscapes on its own than when we tamper with natural processes, mentioning that reclamation planners often include nonnative species or install weird mixes of soil types that are inefficient for reclamation and more costly.
Our final tour activity of the day was to ride the elevator to the top of the new town tower in order to see the view, which was similar to the view from the slag heap and about as high. We could see Poland, Ostrava, the old and new steelworks, and the main shaft towers for several no-longer-in-use coal mines.
Our second day in the Czech Republic, May 2, also started early with an 8:15 departure from the hotel. Our accommodations on the whole trip were really nice - Rachel and I shared a hotel room, very nice ones, every night, Brad had his own, and Zbynek shared with his brother-in-law, Michal, who was along with us for part of the trip. Anyway, we left on the second morning and drove to a nature preserve located in the White Carpathian mountains and maintained by a small NGO. One of the founders of the NGO took us on a long hike on the lower slopes of the mountains to learn about the composition of the forest and about the logging industry which had decimated it decades ago.
We spent the afternoon at the Valaśske Muzeum v Prirode (there's a carrot symbol on the first r and on the e in the last word, but I don't how to make them on my computer), a museum documenting the rural life of the Wallachian people over the past couple of centuries. They had a reconstructed wooden town, a museum exhibiting crafts and folk art, a museum full of old modes of transportation, and a valley filled with reconstructed water mills of various types: felting, saw, blacksmith, and a non-water-powered oil press. It's really impressive how much people were able to accomplish using essentially just wood.
After the museum we had an hour-long ride to Slavicin and then dinner in a small 18th-century Renaissance-y castle that had replaced an earlier one from the Middle Ages. Rachel and I went to bed really early because of the early start we'd gotten that morning. The bathroom setup in our room was really odd, with the shower bottom about a foot-and-a-half off the ground and the sink located such that half of it was actually inside the shower!
That's it for now, because it's late here and I want to do some reading before class tomorrow. But hopefully I'll get back into the habit of making fairly regular blog updates!
We caught a 6:50 AM (absurdly early) train on May 1st for the Czech Republic, and slept for the three hour ride until we arrived in Ostrava, the third largest city in the country and pretty close to the border with Poland. We had a bit of a panic when we got to Ostrava because I remembered from trips through the city on my way to and from Vienna that there are two train stations and we weren't sure if we were at the correct one. We tried asking a conductor on the platform after jumping off the train but he didn't know English or Polish (that was odd). Luckily though, a pretty sketchy-looking man approached us as we spoke with the conductor and turned out to be our guide in the Czech Republic! His name is Zbynek Ulćak, a professor of Environmental Studies at Masaryk University in Brno. We only saw him wear two shirts for the entire 6 days that we were with him - a blue/gray one that he would wear during the day and a forest green one in the evening when we would go to restaurants for dinner. Zbynek turned out to be one of the coolest men I've ever met. He knows absolutely everything there is to know about anything and turned out to be really personable and fun to spend time with.
Our first day we spent in Ostrava. In the morning we were at an old coal mine that had closed in 1991 and been turned into a museum/tourist attraction in '93. Our tour guide of the museum and mine was a guy named Daniel who was dressed kind of like a cowboy. He didn't have a hat, but he had the denim, the belt with a huge buckle, the leather boots, etc. The museum was located in the old miners' guild hall and had really nice exhibits with old machinery from the mines and some pretty cool models of machinery that were too large and cumbersome to be brought back aboveground. The tour of the mine itself was fun although similar to our tour of the Wieliczka salt mine in February. The only difference was that the coal mine still had huge pieces of machinery set up, some of which would even run so that we get some idea of the conditions of working in the mine - it was REALLY noisy!
We ate lunch in the old miner's pub after the tour and had our first taste of Czech food - pork in a delicious creamy sauce with a huge side of potatos. Rachel and I both had lemonade to drink (of course after the local beer, Ostravar) which is always an adventure in Europe since every place somehow interprets the idea differently. This one was a pink grapefruit drink with a hint of lemon and half of full of bits of fruit. Tasty, but not lemonade.
Our afternoon activity in Ostrava was a hike to the top of a huge slag heap a few kilometers from the city center. It's a hill, the highest one around, made of jumbled rock that had been excavated during the coal mining process at a nearby mine. The heap had later been covered with some topsoil and planted trees to make a beautiful green park of sorts, crisscrossed with trails for hiking and mountain-biking. The cool part about the heap is that all of the leftover bits of coal mixed in with the rock that were uneconomical to mine a few decades ago are slowly burning in the middle of the mound, creating places where the ground surface is really hot and steam and other gases are visibly escaping. Zbynek explained why the coal burns even though it's under a huge amount of rock: all of the smaller particles (including coal dust and small bits of coal) end up at the bottom center of the pile with the large rock ends up on the outside of the mound. The spaces between the large rocks allow air to enter the mound and a chimney-effect occurs where air is sucked in at the bottom and flows up and out through the top, providing a constant flow of oxygen that allows combustion. Anyway! There was a beautiful view of the city in all directions from the top of the heap, and the surrounding area was surprisingly almost entirely green. I thought it was great although also a little depressing or empowering when Zbynek informed us that all of the green we could see used to be industrial wasteland that has been since been planted under land reclamation plans. Zbynek kept emphasizing that nature is better at reclaiming landscapes on its own than when we tamper with natural processes, mentioning that reclamation planners often include nonnative species or install weird mixes of soil types that are inefficient for reclamation and more costly.
Our final tour activity of the day was to ride the elevator to the top of the new town tower in order to see the view, which was similar to the view from the slag heap and about as high. We could see Poland, Ostrava, the old and new steelworks, and the main shaft towers for several no-longer-in-use coal mines.
Our second day in the Czech Republic, May 2, also started early with an 8:15 departure from the hotel. Our accommodations on the whole trip were really nice - Rachel and I shared a hotel room, very nice ones, every night, Brad had his own, and Zbynek shared with his brother-in-law, Michal, who was along with us for part of the trip. Anyway, we left on the second morning and drove to a nature preserve located in the White Carpathian mountains and maintained by a small NGO. One of the founders of the NGO took us on a long hike on the lower slopes of the mountains to learn about the composition of the forest and about the logging industry which had decimated it decades ago.
We spent the afternoon at the Valaśske Muzeum v Prirode (there's a carrot symbol on the first r and on the e in the last word, but I don't how to make them on my computer), a museum documenting the rural life of the Wallachian people over the past couple of centuries. They had a reconstructed wooden town, a museum exhibiting crafts and folk art, a museum full of old modes of transportation, and a valley filled with reconstructed water mills of various types: felting, saw, blacksmith, and a non-water-powered oil press. It's really impressive how much people were able to accomplish using essentially just wood.
After the museum we had an hour-long ride to Slavicin and then dinner in a small 18th-century Renaissance-y castle that had replaced an earlier one from the Middle Ages. Rachel and I went to bed really early because of the early start we'd gotten that morning. The bathroom setup in our room was really odd, with the shower bottom about a foot-and-a-half off the ground and the sink located such that half of it was actually inside the shower!
That's it for now, because it's late here and I want to do some reading before class tomorrow. But hopefully I'll get back into the habit of making fairly regular blog updates!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
I saw a fantastic movie, "Man on Wire," Tuesday evening with Rachel and Alex, one of our British friends. Well-done documentary about Philippe Petit, the Frenchman who walked on a tight-rope (really a steel cable but I don't know what else to call it) stretched between the two towers of the World Trade Center in the 1970s.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Kraków has the best street food in all of Europe.
And I state that emphatically and without qualifications even though I can only compare it with Berlin, Vienna, and Venice. We've got zapiekanki which are basically an open-face 12-inch sub roll covered in grilled mushrooms, melted cheese and ketchup. On the deluxe version you can get any combination of chives, garlic sauce, lettuce, tomato, pickles, corn and variety of meats. Then there are kebabs: a delicious medley of veggies (red cabbage, white cabbage, beats, carrots, pickles, lettuce, tomato, onions), meat, cheese and your choice of the-spicy-sauce-that-WILL-knock-your-socks-off or the-garlic-sauce-that-you-WILL-still-taste-next-morning-no-matter-how-much-gum-you-chew. And obwarzanki, which are apparently a Kraków specialty...they have similar versions in other Polish cities but K is the only place that gets the twist just right. Imagine a bagel with a larger hole in the middle, less dense bread that's twisted nicely, and covered in any one of a variety of toppings: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, roasted cheesy bits, plain, or (my favorite) pikantny! I can't quite figure out what's on the pikantny one, but there are lots of grainy things and it's quite deliciously spicy. Ooh, and now that it's warmer a lot of the street food stands are selling hot, steamy corn-on-the-cob. OH, I almost forgot gofry! Gofry are waffles (in the good places you have to wait a few minutes because they cook the waffles RIGHT THEN) covered with all sorts of yummy tidbits: chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, whipped cream, different types of jams, whole fruits, nutella... Nothing better than being handed a waffle on a paper plate dripping with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Although there was that one time that I tipped my waffle slightly and all my whipped cream just slid off it since it was so warm and melty, and splatted on the ground. I thought that was only supposed to happen when you were 6 years old.
I read a newspaper today, which is a pretty incredible phenomenon for a couple of reasons. I normally get all of my news from the good old internet from daily emails by the Washington Post and New York Times, and it's a little expensive to obtain English newspapers in Kraków. I sat for a few hours today in Massolit, the English-language bookstore, and read a copy of April 16's International Herald Tribune as a break from my work. I read an interesting article about how the Himalayan glaciers are epxected to lose 75% of their ice by 2020, in the short-term causing severe flooding in mountain communities and in the longer-term causing severe water shortages since many of the major rivers in Asia have their source in those glaciers. This leads to, guess what, "desperate battles over water." Take Pakistan, for instance, whose major rivers all originate in India... It would have been a depressing article to read except for the large number of climate change initiatives listed at the end and a dead-on analysis of what needs to happen in the near future.
I had a wonderful time in Innsbruck and Venice last week, and will put up some pictures and write a little bit about it later this weekend...it's too late now and sleep is calling.
I read a newspaper today, which is a pretty incredible phenomenon for a couple of reasons. I normally get all of my news from the good old internet from daily emails by the Washington Post and New York Times, and it's a little expensive to obtain English newspapers in Kraków. I sat for a few hours today in Massolit, the English-language bookstore, and read a copy of April 16's International Herald Tribune as a break from my work. I read an interesting article about how the Himalayan glaciers are epxected to lose 75% of their ice by 2020, in the short-term causing severe flooding in mountain communities and in the longer-term causing severe water shortages since many of the major rivers in Asia have their source in those glaciers. This leads to, guess what, "desperate battles over water." Take Pakistan, for instance, whose major rivers all originate in India... It would have been a depressing article to read except for the large number of climate change initiatives listed at the end and a dead-on analysis of what needs to happen in the near future.
I had a wonderful time in Innsbruck and Venice last week, and will put up some pictures and write a little bit about it later this weekend...it's too late now and sleep is calling.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Itinerary and Easter Market!
This afternoon I leave on my week+ vacation!
First stop, Vienna to meet up with Chris.
Sat. 4/4: train to Innsbruck
4/4-4/8: explore Innsbruck and surrounds (1 day in city, 2 days hiking?)
4/8: back to Vienna to catch an overnight train to Venice
4/9-4/13: Venice!
4/13: train to Vienna and back to Krakow that night or early morning on the 14th
YES! I'm excited to see all of these new places.
It's going to be hard to get away from Krakow from here on out though, since it's so beautiful in springtime. Yesterday the weather was 60 F in the sunshine, maybe 50 in the shade. Rachel and I walked from Dom Piast to the old city (about a 40 minute walk) to enjoy the sunshine. I treated myself to a two-scoop cone of ice cream at the mall - chocolate and vanilla, I went basic but both flavors are SO rich at this ice cream cafe. Rachel and I hung out with some of our British friends for a little while at an outdoor cafe a few blocks from the main square and then took a short walk through the Easter market set up in the main square before heading home.
We've been watching the process of setting up the market for the past week or so. Every day there was something new - first the stalls, then wicker animals on top of some of them, then colored wicker eggs, then a HUGE barrel for mulled wine, then the larger grill stalls started appearing and a beautiful little garden in the middle of the square! Yesterday was the first day it opened and of course now I'm going away...but we've heard that the Christmas market was in place in the main square for a month so I'm assuming that the Easter market will definitely be around when I get back, only one day after Easter.
Decoration on one end of the market.
I love this wagon with daffodils coming out of the hay. Pretty and a little goofy with all those little daffodil-heads waving in the breeze.
Awesome wall graffiti that Rachel and I saw on our walk in.
First stop, Vienna to meet up with Chris.
Sat. 4/4: train to Innsbruck
4/4-4/8: explore Innsbruck and surrounds (1 day in city, 2 days hiking?)
4/8: back to Vienna to catch an overnight train to Venice
4/9-4/13: Venice!
4/13: train to Vienna and back to Krakow that night or early morning on the 14th
YES! I'm excited to see all of these new places.
It's going to be hard to get away from Krakow from here on out though, since it's so beautiful in springtime. Yesterday the weather was 60 F in the sunshine, maybe 50 in the shade. Rachel and I walked from Dom Piast to the old city (about a 40 minute walk) to enjoy the sunshine. I treated myself to a two-scoop cone of ice cream at the mall - chocolate and vanilla, I went basic but both flavors are SO rich at this ice cream cafe. Rachel and I hung out with some of our British friends for a little while at an outdoor cafe a few blocks from the main square and then took a short walk through the Easter market set up in the main square before heading home.
We've been watching the process of setting up the market for the past week or so. Every day there was something new - first the stalls, then wicker animals on top of some of them, then colored wicker eggs, then a HUGE barrel for mulled wine, then the larger grill stalls started appearing and a beautiful little garden in the middle of the square! Yesterday was the first day it opened and of course now I'm going away...but we've heard that the Christmas market was in place in the main square for a month so I'm assuming that the Easter market will definitely be around when I get back, only one day after Easter.
Decoration on one end of the market.
I love this wagon with daffodils coming out of the hay. Pretty and a little goofy with all those little daffodil-heads waving in the breeze.
Awesome wall graffiti that Rachel and I saw on our walk in.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
This afternoon Rachel and I went to showing of a film called Camouflage (Barwy Ochronne), a Polish one with English subtitles. A theater on Rynek Główny called Kino Pod Baranami shows Polish films for English audiences every other Tuesday. Today's film, made in the 1970s, is about two Polish academics. One of them is young and incredibly idealistic, the other middle-aged, corrupt, and cynical - the perfect conformist to the Communist system. The plot is pretty minimal and bascially just sets the scene for an intense psychological juxtaposition of the two main characters. It was a cool film that I liked partly because it wasn't nearly as dark and depressing as I think it could have been given the subject matter.
This week is super busy. Easter vacation is coming up but is only technically supposed to be from April 8-14. However, both Rachel's and Brad's parents are coming to Europe during next week and the week after and due to flight schedules and feasible travel plans, we've ended up rearranging our class schedules and getting off from April 3-14! All of professors were perfectly happy to postpone whatever classes we're missing, so the weeks after break will be chock-full of lectures and we have to get all of our assignments done by the end of this week instead of the middle of next. Anyway. I had already planned to be in Venice from April 9-13 for my birthday and now there's the possibility of seeing some more of Austria with Chris! I really want to do that, since most of the traveling I have been and will be able to do basically involves hopping between capital or major cities and, while all beautiful and unique, seeing just the capitals tends to get a tiny bit boring. So I'm hoping Austria works out!
The weather in Kraków is beautiful this week...sunny and almost 60 degrees today! Perfect for walking around and enjoying the buds emerging on the trees.
This week is super busy. Easter vacation is coming up but is only technically supposed to be from April 8-14. However, both Rachel's and Brad's parents are coming to Europe during next week and the week after and due to flight schedules and feasible travel plans, we've ended up rearranging our class schedules and getting off from April 3-14! All of professors were perfectly happy to postpone whatever classes we're missing, so the weeks after break will be chock-full of lectures and we have to get all of our assignments done by the end of this week instead of the middle of next. Anyway. I had already planned to be in Venice from April 9-13 for my birthday and now there's the possibility of seeing some more of Austria with Chris! I really want to do that, since most of the traveling I have been and will be able to do basically involves hopping between capital or major cities and, while all beautiful and unique, seeing just the capitals tends to get a tiny bit boring. So I'm hoping Austria works out!
The weather in Kraków is beautiful this week...sunny and almost 60 degrees today! Perfect for walking around and enjoying the buds emerging on the trees.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Spring seems to be here for good! Yesterday was beautiful though still a bit chilly - I wore my wintercoat but walked around all day with it unbuttoned and no scarf. Today is even more perfect, with 60 degree F weather, bright sunshine, and a clear blue sky. I was hot walking around with a denim jacket over my t-shirt!
After a lazy morning we walked to a place called More Than a Cookie near the old part of town (about a 20 minute walk) to have an early afternoon cookie snack! Delicious. I had their signature chocolate chip cookie which was very chocolatey (I hate chocolate chip cookies that aren't chock-full of chips...it's such a let-down) with a very rich dough. I also had rich, fudgy chocolate cookies with mint frosting, raspberry frosting, and a chocolate-orange frosting and a white-chocolate-peanut cookie. Oh, and a hot chocolate with marshmallows in it! This was the first place I've found in Krakow that offered marshmallows in their hot chocolate.
While I'm talking about food, Rachel and I ate dinner last night after our language class at a place called Pod Chimera, a five-star fancy restaurant that offers an affordable cafe salad bar next door. I think the salad bar is quite good, mainly because it offers hot dishes in addition to the salad. I had a fish-and-potato pancake of sorts (yummier than it sounds) and an assortment of salads: spinach and soy, bean sprouts and tomatos, and macaroni with veggies. All topped with a mild orange mustard though I was tempted by the creamy garlic sauce. I love food!
Yesterday was also great because Rachel and I went thrift store shopping again and made some lovely purchases. We ran into a girl named Kasia in one of the shops whom we met during the first week we were here and have only seen a couple of times since.
Friday afternoon on ulica Grodzka, the largest street leading off the main market square since it goes straight to Wawel. This was the most crowded we've ever seen the street.
Street performers in the main square.
One of the street performers. He was actually spinning on his head though of course you can't tell from the still picture. Rachel and I got there at the very end of the show but what we saw these kids doing was pretty amazing!
After a lazy morning we walked to a place called More Than a Cookie near the old part of town (about a 20 minute walk) to have an early afternoon cookie snack! Delicious. I had their signature chocolate chip cookie which was very chocolatey (I hate chocolate chip cookies that aren't chock-full of chips...it's such a let-down) with a very rich dough. I also had rich, fudgy chocolate cookies with mint frosting, raspberry frosting, and a chocolate-orange frosting and a white-chocolate-peanut cookie. Oh, and a hot chocolate with marshmallows in it! This was the first place I've found in Krakow that offered marshmallows in their hot chocolate.
While I'm talking about food, Rachel and I ate dinner last night after our language class at a place called Pod Chimera, a five-star fancy restaurant that offers an affordable cafe salad bar next door. I think the salad bar is quite good, mainly because it offers hot dishes in addition to the salad. I had a fish-and-potato pancake of sorts (yummier than it sounds) and an assortment of salads: spinach and soy, bean sprouts and tomatos, and macaroni with veggies. All topped with a mild orange mustard though I was tempted by the creamy garlic sauce. I love food!
Yesterday was also great because Rachel and I went thrift store shopping again and made some lovely purchases. We ran into a girl named Kasia in one of the shops whom we met during the first week we were here and have only seen a couple of times since.
Friday afternoon on ulica Grodzka, the largest street leading off the main market square since it goes straight to Wawel. This was the most crowded we've ever seen the street.
Street performers in the main square.
One of the street performers. He was actually spinning on his head though of course you can't tell from the still picture. Rachel and I got there at the very end of the show but what we saw these kids doing was pretty amazing!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Today Kraków is doing its 20 minutes of 40 degree weather and brilliant sunshine alternating with 20 minutes of 20 degree weather and blowing snow. *sigh* I decided it was a good day to come right home after class and spend the afternoon doing work and reading. I'll run over to the Biedronka, our next-door mini grocery store, in a little bit to pick up some more water and maybe some chocolate. Yum!
So Vienna! We left Thursday a little after 5 pm when we were picked up by the bus service at Dom Piast. The drive was a little ridiculous and it took us 4-5 hours just to make it to the border between Poland and Slovakia due to bad weather in the mountains and having to pick 2 people up in really random, out-of-the-way mountain towns. Brad and Rachel were dropped off at our friend Viki's flat in northeastern Vienna around 1 am, and I didn't make it to Chris' house in southwestern Vienna until 2 am because the other passengers were dropped off in between.
Friday I got to go on a tour of the Natural History museum with everyone on Chris' program. The tours are supposed to be 15 people and they only had 10, so the program director (Brit) was happy to let me tag along. Of course, natural history museums have always been my favorite and this one didn't disappoint! We saw a LOT of minerals and other cool geological stuff, and went through the dinosaur and early mammal sections. It was totally cool. The tour guide was a retired gentleman who said he continued during the tours because he loved it so much - and proved it with his enthusiasm! The tour was in German, obviously, since everyone on it except for me spoke German. Chris says he had a lot of fun translating for me, although the tour guide would say some things for me in english every now and then and spoke slowly and accompanied almost everything with very elaborate gestures so I actually picked up a lot of it. He also made me do all of the demonstration things, like feeling the teeth and tusks on the fossil skulls and wondering what they were used for, or pushing the buttons on the evolution simulation machine.
Rachel and Brad met us at the museum midafternoon and the four of us (R, B, Chris, and I) spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the 1st district to get a feel for the city with periodic stops to warm up. We stopped at the Demel chocolate store and bought some chocolate bars and also at a cafe called Aida for some inexpensive and delicious pastry! We had some bruschetta at Caffe Bar in Stephansplatz and then met up with Gerald (Viki's boyfriend who Rachel, Brad, and I had met when he visited her in Kraków a few weeks ago) and his friend, Matthias. We spent a long time at a restaurant and then broke up after midnight.
Saturday was a sushi-filled day! Chris took me to a sushi restaurant a short ride on the U-bahn from his house for lunch. It was a deceptive place since it looked like one of the tiny street food places but actually had a small sitting area inside and delicious food. We both got bento boxes with an assortment of sushi and a meat dish - beef for me, crispy duck for Chris. Then we hopped across the street and spent a long time in the grounds of Schloss Schonbrunn, a huge yellow palace surrounded by an incredibly extensive park. It was the first consistently beautiful day I've seen in Europe, so it was wonderful to spend it outdoors! We grabbed dinner at a sushi stand in one of the U-bahn stations and then met up with a ton of people at a pub for Viki's 23rd birthday party. It was a typical birthday party: dancing, hanging out with friends, and meeting new ones.
On Sunday, Brit hosted a brunch at her flat for everyone on the program plus me and Eric, the boyfriend of another Swattie on the Vienna program, Lauren. Delicious food! Bread, cheeses, meats, butter and creamy spreads, nutella, fresh fruit! Yummy. After brunch, Chris and I wandered around the city some more with the other Chris on his program (Chris S. also from Swarthmore) and met up with Rachel and Brad for lunch and coffee at Central Cafe. Then it was time to go back to Chris' house and pack, then head to Viki's flat where the bus was going to pick us up and take us back to Kraków! We left Vienna around 8:15 pm on Sunday and arrived back at Dom Piast a little after 2 am. A much shorter trip due to better weather in the mountains and only having to drop off one additional passenger.
I had a lot of fun in Vienna, but it was definitely nice to return to Kraków, which really does feel like my home in Europe. It has a lot to do with having more familiarity with the language here as well as a routine and a small circle of friends. In addition to all that, though, Vienna was just too big and too beautiful and too classical, and seemed a little stodgy! Kraków seems a bit more dingy (in a homey way) and edgier with more attitude. Also more interesting. :) Well, I'm planning to visit Vienna again in the summer so I'll see what I think after gaining a bit more familiarity with it!
I think my life is going to be fairly uneventful for the next few weeks until I go to Venice for Easter break, so my next posts will probably be academic-y. You have been warned.
So Vienna! We left Thursday a little after 5 pm when we were picked up by the bus service at Dom Piast. The drive was a little ridiculous and it took us 4-5 hours just to make it to the border between Poland and Slovakia due to bad weather in the mountains and having to pick 2 people up in really random, out-of-the-way mountain towns. Brad and Rachel were dropped off at our friend Viki's flat in northeastern Vienna around 1 am, and I didn't make it to Chris' house in southwestern Vienna until 2 am because the other passengers were dropped off in between.
Friday I got to go on a tour of the Natural History museum with everyone on Chris' program. The tours are supposed to be 15 people and they only had 10, so the program director (Brit) was happy to let me tag along. Of course, natural history museums have always been my favorite and this one didn't disappoint! We saw a LOT of minerals and other cool geological stuff, and went through the dinosaur and early mammal sections. It was totally cool. The tour guide was a retired gentleman who said he continued during the tours because he loved it so much - and proved it with his enthusiasm! The tour was in German, obviously, since everyone on it except for me spoke German. Chris says he had a lot of fun translating for me, although the tour guide would say some things for me in english every now and then and spoke slowly and accompanied almost everything with very elaborate gestures so I actually picked up a lot of it. He also made me do all of the demonstration things, like feeling the teeth and tusks on the fossil skulls and wondering what they were used for, or pushing the buttons on the evolution simulation machine.
Rachel and Brad met us at the museum midafternoon and the four of us (R, B, Chris, and I) spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the 1st district to get a feel for the city with periodic stops to warm up. We stopped at the Demel chocolate store and bought some chocolate bars and also at a cafe called Aida for some inexpensive and delicious pastry! We had some bruschetta at Caffe Bar in Stephansplatz and then met up with Gerald (Viki's boyfriend who Rachel, Brad, and I had met when he visited her in Kraków a few weeks ago) and his friend, Matthias. We spent a long time at a restaurant and then broke up after midnight.
Saturday was a sushi-filled day! Chris took me to a sushi restaurant a short ride on the U-bahn from his house for lunch. It was a deceptive place since it looked like one of the tiny street food places but actually had a small sitting area inside and delicious food. We both got bento boxes with an assortment of sushi and a meat dish - beef for me, crispy duck for Chris. Then we hopped across the street and spent a long time in the grounds of Schloss Schonbrunn, a huge yellow palace surrounded by an incredibly extensive park. It was the first consistently beautiful day I've seen in Europe, so it was wonderful to spend it outdoors! We grabbed dinner at a sushi stand in one of the U-bahn stations and then met up with a ton of people at a pub for Viki's 23rd birthday party. It was a typical birthday party: dancing, hanging out with friends, and meeting new ones.
On Sunday, Brit hosted a brunch at her flat for everyone on the program plus me and Eric, the boyfriend of another Swattie on the Vienna program, Lauren. Delicious food! Bread, cheeses, meats, butter and creamy spreads, nutella, fresh fruit! Yummy. After brunch, Chris and I wandered around the city some more with the other Chris on his program (Chris S. also from Swarthmore) and met up with Rachel and Brad for lunch and coffee at Central Cafe. Then it was time to go back to Chris' house and pack, then head to Viki's flat where the bus was going to pick us up and take us back to Kraków! We left Vienna around 8:15 pm on Sunday and arrived back at Dom Piast a little after 2 am. A much shorter trip due to better weather in the mountains and only having to drop off one additional passenger.
I had a lot of fun in Vienna, but it was definitely nice to return to Kraków, which really does feel like my home in Europe. It has a lot to do with having more familiarity with the language here as well as a routine and a small circle of friends. In addition to all that, though, Vienna was just too big and too beautiful and too classical, and seemed a little stodgy! Kraków seems a bit more dingy (in a homey way) and edgier with more attitude. Also more interesting. :) Well, I'm planning to visit Vienna again in the summer so I'll see what I think after gaining a bit more familiarity with it!
I think my life is going to be fairly uneventful for the next few weeks until I go to Venice for Easter break, so my next posts will probably be academic-y. You have been warned.
Monday, March 23, 2009
W weekend jechaliśmy do Wiedniu!
That might be correct...it's supposed to say "We went to Vienna for the weekend!" We left Thursday evening and arrived back in Krakow late last night (Sunday night). I'll write about the trip in another post, but it took so long to upload pictures tonight that I'm just going to write some short captions and leave the rest for later.
Mostly Catholic country = Easter stuff everywhere, though it didn't seem as commercialized as in the US. I thought these bunny candles were super cute.
The hungry hungry caterpillar in German! One of my favorite children's books. Apparently it's his 40th anniversary?
Really cool arty thing in a wall.
Stephansdom (I think I'm remembering the name right) at night on Friday.
The Vienna opera house at night (Friday).
Holocaust commemoration, I think (I saw so many things it's hard to keep straight what was what).
Chris and I in one corner of Heldenplatz...this is my new favorite picture of us. :)
Another shot of Heldenplatz with Rachel, Brad, and Chris.
The Hofburg Theater.
Hmm, I completely forget what this is... I'll have to check with Chris.
Arched thing on top of the high hill in the middle of the park at Schloss Schonbrunn.
View from the arched thing toward the palace (Schloss Schonbrunn) with a fantastic view of the city.
Another shot of the palace from halfway up the hill to the arched thing.
Fountain at the foot of the hill with the arched thing on top. I was in that black arch in the center when I took the previous picture.
Closer shot of the palace, which was a surprisingly plain building, with Chris in foreground.
View from one corner of the palace. Open lawns/gardens leading to the fountain and hill at the far end.
Near the entrance to the palace park. The conservatory belongs to the zoo that exists on the palace grounds. I liked being able to see the garden designs in the dirt. I guess they've planted bulbs or will be planting flowers in the coming weeks?
Inside the Central Cafe where all sorts of famous historical people used to eat. The guy on the left is another Chris and another Swarthmore student studying in Vienna this semester. Both Chris's were a little embarrassed by my tourist-ness since they actually live there. :)
The Hofburg.
The Vienna opera house during the day (Sunday).
The Secession building. Yes, it has a moustache.
Karlskirche. The guy in red in front of it is Chris S. and the one sitting down in black is Chris R.
Pretty building!
Vienna concert house.
One of the many versions of the Danube wending their way through the city. We established that this was a canal, but the Chris's didn't know which one.
Mostly Catholic country = Easter stuff everywhere, though it didn't seem as commercialized as in the US. I thought these bunny candles were super cute.
The hungry hungry caterpillar in German! One of my favorite children's books. Apparently it's his 40th anniversary?
Really cool arty thing in a wall.
Stephansdom (I think I'm remembering the name right) at night on Friday.
The Vienna opera house at night (Friday).
Holocaust commemoration, I think (I saw so many things it's hard to keep straight what was what).
Chris and I in one corner of Heldenplatz...this is my new favorite picture of us. :)
Another shot of Heldenplatz with Rachel, Brad, and Chris.
The Hofburg Theater.
Hmm, I completely forget what this is... I'll have to check with Chris.
Arched thing on top of the high hill in the middle of the park at Schloss Schonbrunn.
View from the arched thing toward the palace (Schloss Schonbrunn) with a fantastic view of the city.
Another shot of the palace from halfway up the hill to the arched thing.
Fountain at the foot of the hill with the arched thing on top. I was in that black arch in the center when I took the previous picture.
Closer shot of the palace, which was a surprisingly plain building, with Chris in foreground.
View from one corner of the palace. Open lawns/gardens leading to the fountain and hill at the far end.
Near the entrance to the palace park. The conservatory belongs to the zoo that exists on the palace grounds. I liked being able to see the garden designs in the dirt. I guess they've planted bulbs or will be planting flowers in the coming weeks?
Inside the Central Cafe where all sorts of famous historical people used to eat. The guy on the left is another Chris and another Swarthmore student studying in Vienna this semester. Both Chris's were a little embarrassed by my tourist-ness since they actually live there. :)
The Vienna opera house during the day (Sunday).
The Secession building. Yes, it has a moustache.
Karlskirche. The guy in red in front of it is Chris S. and the one sitting down in black is Chris R.
Pretty building!
Vienna concert house.
One of the many versions of the Danube wending their way through the city. We established that this was a canal, but the Chris's didn't know which one.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Saturday night we went to a show in the basement of a place called Loch Camelot. The group played Polish songs from the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries, some raucous and some hauntingly beautiful. The main male singer in the group was a little bit of a ham and absolutely fantastic. He changed aspects of his costume to fit with each song, making jokes the whole time. There were two female singers with beautiful voices, very strong, who sang a few pieces throughout the show with the piano or accordion. The musicians (a guitar, electric bass, and accordion who also switched to piano for a few songs) assisted with the slight buffoonery of the main guy and definitely each had their own personality and presence on the stage. Oh, and there was a fiddler who showed up about an hour late and snuck backstage, then reappeared to play and sing. It was a really great show! All in Polish, of course, so I couldn't understand any of the words but I could definitely appreciate the musical performance. It was also funny because our group of 6 university students was the youngest group of people in the room by about 25 years, except for some of the musicians.
Shot of the stage pre-performance. Isn't this space great???
Let's see... we've met a bunch of new people, all Americans unfortunately so no branching out to non-english speakers so far although I am starting to make friends with some of the girls on the swim team. We met a guy named Jon, a Harvard grad doing phsyics research at one of the universities here who's pretty cool. We also met a huge group of American grad students doing a master's program in European Studies at the Jagiellonian University. Four of them actually live practically across the street from us, so we were over there Saturday and will probably be seeing them pretty often. Interesting and fun group of people.
Last night we went to an Irish pub downtown and it were a little surprised by the number of Irish accents in the place. It was packed of course, and it seemed like everyone was obviously Irish in speech.
Leaving for Vienna for the weekend tomorrow! We're traveling with a small bus service which is cheap and goes door-to-door. Of course, although some of the people in the company speak English, the woman that I kept getting in every call only spoke Polish and German...but I managed to reserve three spots and they're going to pick us up at 2 pm tomorrow! (I think...) I'm kind of proud of myself for managing that in Polish.
Language classes started up this week so now I'm pretty busy. Three hours of class a day (except for Fridays) and an hour-and-a-half of language three times a week. Add swim practice twice and a week and the time spent commuting on public transportation, and yay I'm pleasantly busy! I had dinner with one of the girls in my language class and some of her friends after our first class last Thursday. There are a lot of people from France in my class, maybe 4 or 5 out of the 10 people there? Also 2 from Spain, and the rest are Germans and me. I'm excited to learn more Polish!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
I ate too much chocolate today
The chocolate is just too good in Poland. I'm sure I've mentioned this before... It's also very inexpensive. A fantastic combination.
We went to dinner tonight with Matt and Maggie, the other two American students we've been hanging out with a fair amount. We tried a vegetarian restaurant called Greenway, just a short way off of Rynek Główny. I ordered a vegetable curry and found it to be quite good, though it could have been MUCH more spicy. Another dinner-goer tonight was a guy named John from Miami, a nuclear physics grad student studying at one of the technical universities in Kraków. Nice guy who fits that "physics-type" in a good way. Sounds like we'll be seeing him again this weekend for some Friday night festivities.
Rachel and I just finished watching the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice" (with COLIN FIRTH!!!) and now we're not quite sure what to do with ourselves. The real world just seems like such a let-down after being immersed in Jane Austen. Fewer empire-style dresses (is that the right term?), fewer beautiful gardens and parks, no carriages, no balls, no rich men come a-courtin'. It's very sad.
So maybe I'll talk a little bit about my usual week, now that our class schedule has gotten (kind of) settled... I have 4 environmental classes that each meet once a week for 2.5-3 hours, depending on whether or not we get a break in the middle of the class.
Monday at 12:30 - Environmental Policy in Central and Eastern Europe
Tuesday at 10:30 - Ecological Engineering and Sustainable Development
Wednesday at 2:30 - Environmental Engineering Lab
Thursday at 10:00 - Environmental Economics
Monday and Thursday evenings I have swim practice with the Politechnika team for 45 minutes (I wish it was longer...). I also have a violin student! It's looking like I'm going to be meeting with him for about an hour, once a week. His name is Tom, a British dude maybe late-20s teaching English here. He plays guitar already so he knows music but wants help with violin technique and fiddle music. Totally fun, although now I'm definitely wishing I'd brought my violin with me... I'm weighing the possibility of renting a violin while I'm here, trying to decide how much I would play it versus the cost of renting. Having a student definitely inspires me to work harder on my own though, and the whole atmosphere of Kraków makes me want to delve more deeply into klezmer music.
What else... I spend quite a lot of time reading in cafes. I have to write a paper by the end of April for the main professor of the survey culture course we took in February. I've got my topic narrowed down to Czesław Miłosz, a famous Polish poet and Nobel laureate who wrote prolifically throughout the 20th century. His work is really REALLY beautiful. We had to read a few chapters in his semi-autobiographical book, The Captive Mind, for class and now I'm debating between writing about his book or his poetry. The book is really cool because he explores the mindset of many Polish authors in the first half of the century and the emotions and thought-processes that made many authors choose to collaborate with the Communist regimes and many others to choose exile and the life of an emigre abroad. It's fascinating. On the other hand, his poetry is amazing art. So I have a lot of reading ahead of me as I work out what I'm going to do...and then do it. And of course I'm also doing reading for next year's thesis, as I've mentioned many times already. I've got some new general ideas that are kind of exciting and it's reassuring to find that there are several directions, many interesting to me and perhaps actually worthwhile, in which I could go. I'll probably post long boring posts about these ideas sometime when I sit down and actually start to explore them in detail.
We went to dinner tonight with Matt and Maggie, the other two American students we've been hanging out with a fair amount. We tried a vegetarian restaurant called Greenway, just a short way off of Rynek Główny. I ordered a vegetable curry and found it to be quite good, though it could have been MUCH more spicy. Another dinner-goer tonight was a guy named John from Miami, a nuclear physics grad student studying at one of the technical universities in Kraków. Nice guy who fits that "physics-type" in a good way. Sounds like we'll be seeing him again this weekend for some Friday night festivities.
Rachel and I just finished watching the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice" (with COLIN FIRTH!!!) and now we're not quite sure what to do with ourselves. The real world just seems like such a let-down after being immersed in Jane Austen. Fewer empire-style dresses (is that the right term?), fewer beautiful gardens and parks, no carriages, no balls, no rich men come a-courtin'. It's very sad.
So maybe I'll talk a little bit about my usual week, now that our class schedule has gotten (kind of) settled... I have 4 environmental classes that each meet once a week for 2.5-3 hours, depending on whether or not we get a break in the middle of the class.
Monday at 12:30 - Environmental Policy in Central and Eastern Europe
Tuesday at 10:30 - Ecological Engineering and Sustainable Development
Wednesday at 2:30 - Environmental Engineering Lab
Thursday at 10:00 - Environmental Economics
Monday and Thursday evenings I have swim practice with the Politechnika team for 45 minutes (I wish it was longer...). I also have a violin student! It's looking like I'm going to be meeting with him for about an hour, once a week. His name is Tom, a British dude maybe late-20s teaching English here. He plays guitar already so he knows music but wants help with violin technique and fiddle music. Totally fun, although now I'm definitely wishing I'd brought my violin with me... I'm weighing the possibility of renting a violin while I'm here, trying to decide how much I would play it versus the cost of renting. Having a student definitely inspires me to work harder on my own though, and the whole atmosphere of Kraków makes me want to delve more deeply into klezmer music.
What else... I spend quite a lot of time reading in cafes. I have to write a paper by the end of April for the main professor of the survey culture course we took in February. I've got my topic narrowed down to Czesław Miłosz, a famous Polish poet and Nobel laureate who wrote prolifically throughout the 20th century. His work is really REALLY beautiful. We had to read a few chapters in his semi-autobiographical book, The Captive Mind, for class and now I'm debating between writing about his book or his poetry. The book is really cool because he explores the mindset of many Polish authors in the first half of the century and the emotions and thought-processes that made many authors choose to collaborate with the Communist regimes and many others to choose exile and the life of an emigre abroad. It's fascinating. On the other hand, his poetry is amazing art. So I have a lot of reading ahead of me as I work out what I'm going to do...and then do it. And of course I'm also doing reading for next year's thesis, as I've mentioned many times already. I've got some new general ideas that are kind of exciting and it's reassuring to find that there are several directions, many interesting to me and perhaps actually worthwhile, in which I could go. I'll probably post long boring posts about these ideas sometime when I sit down and actually start to explore them in detail.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thrift stores and clearance racks
...are amazing in Krakow! We went to the H&M store in the mall earlier this week and found a clearance rack where everything was 10 złotych, or about $3! So I bought a cute black t-shirt, a long-sleeved green and gray shirt, and a short teal skirt. For $8-9. Then today Brad, Rachel, and I walked from Piast (our dorm) into the old city area, passing a lot of thrift stores on the way. The first stop was the store located in the basement of our building where I got a new shoulderbag (I needed a bigger one so I can carry a book around with me, as well as water bottle, camera, etc.) and a sparkly tanktop for dancing. Total was about $13. Stopped in several more shops but didn't get anything until a shop where I got 2 pairs of leather boots for about $7!!!! One pair is black and about mid-calf, with a 2 inch-ish heel. The other pair stops just under my knees and is dark-brown with no heel. Both in fantastic shape with only light scuffing and they fit perfectly! I'm so excited to wear them. After the thrift stores we went on to the mall so Rachel could more money on the SIM card in her cell, a stop at the grocery store, and a scoop of ice cream at the fantastic ice cream cafe on the third floor of the mall.
This week was a great one class-wise. Our class schedule finally seems to be coming together. All of our lectures this week were interesting, although the most interesting I thought was the Environmental Economics lecture Brad and I had Thursday morning. We didn't get very much new material since the professor wanted to do a brief overview of Polish history as preparation for diving into the world of environmental econ next week. Of course, we'd already had an overview of Polish history in our Polish history and culture class in February, but it was cool to hear about it from another person's point of view. This professor (Preisner) focused mostly on 20th century history: the world wars and communism. He had a very different experience during the communist era than the professor (Nowakoska) who taught us in February. Preisner lived as an expat in Canada for several years in the late '70s and returned in '80 when the Solidarity movement began. He talked for a long time about the overwhelming optimism especially among Polish youth at that time - they were completely convinced that communism was over and then came the shock of martial law in '81. Imagine returning home with all that hope only to have things become even worse than they had been before.
I'm now deep into the book I mentioned a while ago, The Legacies of Communism in Eastern Europe, and finding lots of tantalizing little bits that might be interesting for my thesis. Apparently I have some bureacratic checking-up to do though, since I received an email from the coordinator of the Environmental Studies minor asking what I was going to do for my honors preparation. So now I need to email the Peace & Conflict Studies department chair and make sure that I'm registered for an honors minor with that department and then get in touch with the Environmental coordinator and remind her that I'm supposed to be doing a non-honors minor in that department. Although it technically doesn't matter which department I do my honors minor in, since my thesis has to incorporate both fields no matter what.
Now a few pictures!
Awesome gate south of Ul. Karmelicka (the street that runs from our dorm to the old city) on the way to Massolit, the English bookstore/cafe.
Probably my favorite picture of Brad. This is in a pierogi restaurant a couple of blocks from our dorm, Piast, where we went for lunch last weekend.
Brad took this with my camera on the tram today (Friday). I swear Rachel and I do actually talk to each other, despite how the picture might portray our relationship... Check out my massive sunglasses.
This week was a great one class-wise. Our class schedule finally seems to be coming together. All of our lectures this week were interesting, although the most interesting I thought was the Environmental Economics lecture Brad and I had Thursday morning. We didn't get very much new material since the professor wanted to do a brief overview of Polish history as preparation for diving into the world of environmental econ next week. Of course, we'd already had an overview of Polish history in our Polish history and culture class in February, but it was cool to hear about it from another person's point of view. This professor (Preisner) focused mostly on 20th century history: the world wars and communism. He had a very different experience during the communist era than the professor (Nowakoska) who taught us in February. Preisner lived as an expat in Canada for several years in the late '70s and returned in '80 when the Solidarity movement began. He talked for a long time about the overwhelming optimism especially among Polish youth at that time - they were completely convinced that communism was over and then came the shock of martial law in '81. Imagine returning home with all that hope only to have things become even worse than they had been before.
I'm now deep into the book I mentioned a while ago, The Legacies of Communism in Eastern Europe, and finding lots of tantalizing little bits that might be interesting for my thesis. Apparently I have some bureacratic checking-up to do though, since I received an email from the coordinator of the Environmental Studies minor asking what I was going to do for my honors preparation. So now I need to email the Peace & Conflict Studies department chair and make sure that I'm registered for an honors minor with that department and then get in touch with the Environmental coordinator and remind her that I'm supposed to be doing a non-honors minor in that department. Although it technically doesn't matter which department I do my honors minor in, since my thesis has to incorporate both fields no matter what.
Now a few pictures!
Awesome gate south of Ul. Karmelicka (the street that runs from our dorm to the old city) on the way to Massolit, the English bookstore/cafe.
Probably my favorite picture of Brad. This is in a pierogi restaurant a couple of blocks from our dorm, Piast, where we went for lunch last weekend.
Brad took this with my camera on the tram today (Friday). I swear Rachel and I do actually talk to each other, despite how the picture might portray our relationship... Check out my massive sunglasses.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
I thought I should post this since I am, after all, studying environmental science and the compact car totally beat out the hummer and suv in this picture. Yessss! From failblog.org.
So I got my hair cut! Rachel cut it for me on Friday because it was way too long and kept getting stuck in my coat and stuff. So here are some pictures of me with newly-shorn hair, taken at a party we went to Friday night. The other girl in this picture is Alachua, a student from Florida taking a gap year before college and interning with a rabbi here in Krakow. I think she's singing along to a song here, hence the interesting face.
Hair from the back, with Rachel breaking out her dance moves in the background.
I got caught mid-laugh but look at the short hair! The half-face on the left is Iza, who lives in Wrocław and was only here for the weekend visiting some friends.
In other news, I started swimming twice a week with the Politechnika team! It's unclear whether or not I'm actually allowed to swim on the team, but apparently I'm "too experienced" to be enrolled in the normal swim classes and so I practice with the team. It was a bit of an ego-boost for someone who hasn't done any swimming since high school.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
I'm a book-addict
This week flew by unbelievably fast and I've now been in Poland for 4 weeks and it's been a little over 6 weeks since I left home! It's going by too fast. :(
Brad and I had our first meeting with our Environmental Economics professor on Thursday. It's just the two of us in the class, so we sat around a table in the professor's office. Seems like it's going to be an interesting course with plenty of opportunities for Brad and I to suggest topics we would particularly like to cover. I already shared my obsession with transitions with the professor, so he knows that I'm going to be super interested in our lectures on the post-communist transformation and the transition process of accession into the EU. I'm really trying to dig for thesis material here!
In that vein, I've started reading a book called The Legacies of Communism in Eastern Europe, which has a juicy-looking section on the environmental legacy of the communist system and predictions for the future. But so far I'm only halfway through the introduction so I've got a ways to go before I get to the interesting stuff. I settled down last night for a good chunk of book-reading but was stopped by one sentence: "According to Marxist economic theory, the development of infrastructure was a low priority; production became the central element of the system." This sentence precipitated an impassioned rant to Rachel and ranting email to Chris. Does that sentence not set off little stupidity alarm bells in anyone elses' head? You simply can't have production without infrastructure, and attempting to develop production to the level that the Soviets did requires an equal, if not greater, investment in infrastructure development. Or else the whole system falls apart, as I guess everyone saw in the end. Anyway, I know the author of the book I'm reading is just summarizing one part of Marx's argument and there's more to it, but I still think the idea in that one sentence is really stupid. So today I spent the afternoon in the English bookstore, Massolit, reading a copy of The Portable Marx.
Rachel and I tried to go to a museum on the history of photography which was advertised as open but got there to find that it was closed. There was a little crowd of people outside the door, so we weren't the only ones who got the wrong message. We ate lunch at a delicious place in Kazimierz (the old Jewish quarter) called Bagel Mama. It's the only place in Krakow where you can get real, American-style bagels and real Tex-Mex burritos. Oh, and they have super yummy brownies. It's a little pricey so we don't go there often. The owners are really nice...a man from New York who came here 15 years ago and stayed because he fell in love with a Polish girl. Awww.
In other news, we got some information about the athletic situation (we're all getting a little antsy with the lack of exercise) and I'm going to try to join the swim team! Our program coordinator, Piotr, is going to take me to the practice tomorrow so we can ask the coach if there's still room in the program, since it's technically a "class." It would be pretty amazing and a great way to meet some more students! That's the only bad thing about our classes: 3 of them are just the three of us, and one is just Brad and I. Our language class doesn't start up again until the middle of March (it's part of the international European Erasmus program so it's not really on the regular university schedule) but there will be a lot more people in that class and from all over the continent.
Oh, we had our language and culture class exams last week as I've mentioned and they went really well. I have to keep studying my Polish, though, because we have to take placement exams at the beginning of the Erasmus class and I want to make sure I get into a class that will really push me.
Brad and I had our first meeting with our Environmental Economics professor on Thursday. It's just the two of us in the class, so we sat around a table in the professor's office. Seems like it's going to be an interesting course with plenty of opportunities for Brad and I to suggest topics we would particularly like to cover. I already shared my obsession with transitions with the professor, so he knows that I'm going to be super interested in our lectures on the post-communist transformation and the transition process of accession into the EU. I'm really trying to dig for thesis material here!
In that vein, I've started reading a book called The Legacies of Communism in Eastern Europe, which has a juicy-looking section on the environmental legacy of the communist system and predictions for the future. But so far I'm only halfway through the introduction so I've got a ways to go before I get to the interesting stuff. I settled down last night for a good chunk of book-reading but was stopped by one sentence: "According to Marxist economic theory, the development of infrastructure was a low priority; production became the central element of the system." This sentence precipitated an impassioned rant to Rachel and ranting email to Chris. Does that sentence not set off little stupidity alarm bells in anyone elses' head? You simply can't have production without infrastructure, and attempting to develop production to the level that the Soviets did requires an equal, if not greater, investment in infrastructure development. Or else the whole system falls apart, as I guess everyone saw in the end. Anyway, I know the author of the book I'm reading is just summarizing one part of Marx's argument and there's more to it, but I still think the idea in that one sentence is really stupid. So today I spent the afternoon in the English bookstore, Massolit, reading a copy of The Portable Marx.
Rachel and I tried to go to a museum on the history of photography which was advertised as open but got there to find that it was closed. There was a little crowd of people outside the door, so we weren't the only ones who got the wrong message. We ate lunch at a delicious place in Kazimierz (the old Jewish quarter) called Bagel Mama. It's the only place in Krakow where you can get real, American-style bagels and real Tex-Mex burritos. Oh, and they have super yummy brownies. It's a little pricey so we don't go there often. The owners are really nice...a man from New York who came here 15 years ago and stayed because he fell in love with a Polish girl. Awww.
In other news, we got some information about the athletic situation (we're all getting a little antsy with the lack of exercise) and I'm going to try to join the swim team! Our program coordinator, Piotr, is going to take me to the practice tomorrow so we can ask the coach if there's still room in the program, since it's technically a "class." It would be pretty amazing and a great way to meet some more students! That's the only bad thing about our classes: 3 of them are just the three of us, and one is just Brad and I. Our language class doesn't start up again until the middle of March (it's part of the international European Erasmus program so it's not really on the regular university schedule) but there will be a lot more people in that class and from all over the continent.
Oh, we had our language and culture class exams last week as I've mentioned and they went really well. I have to keep studying my Polish, though, because we have to take placement exams at the beginning of the Erasmus class and I want to make sure I get into a class that will really push me.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
I <3 School! Yayyyyyyy
First meeting of our Ecological Engineering and Sustainable Development class today! It's supposed to be a 2.5 hour class but we went way over time today and it was fantastic. We're going to get to design a wetland later in the semester! The prof (Włodzimierz Wojcik - lovely Polish name) is really nice and great at fostering discussion in the class. I guess there won't be a ton of that once we get into the more hardcore engineering material, but it was great today when we were doing an overview of sustainable development, sustainability, and why it's all necessary. We also have our first homework assignment, a collaborative short paper and 10 minute powerpoint presentation due next Tuesday, that I'm ridiculously excited about. It's been about 9.5 weeks since I was in a real class so YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!
And now I need to stop goofing around on the internet and start reviewing my language exam on Thursday and culture exam on Friday...exams are fun!
(friends who are still in school...please don't kill me after reading this post, kthxbai)
And now I need to stop goofing around on the internet and start reviewing my language exam on Thursday and culture exam on Friday...exams are fun!
(friends who are still in school...please don't kill me after reading this post, kthxbai)
Monday, February 23, 2009
A bit of bookishness
Fantastic lecture today in our culture class on undergound culture in Poland under Communist rule. The professor who lectured today and will also lecture tomorrow is mom and dad's age, so grew up, studied, and began her career under Communism. Most of her father's family was murdered during the Holocaust and most of the survivors fled to Israel. She remembers the letters her father would receive from them once a year or so, and the hiding places where they were secreted because possession of letters corresponding with the West could lead to imprisonment or death. As a literature student, her only access to real literature, East or West, was through illegal underground publications. She still has some of those formerly illegal copies, which she brings into class for us to take a look at. It's incredible to learn about twentieth century Poland from people who actually experienced it and can deliver it to us in such a hands-on way. She also brings in samples of socialist realist art and "literature," all basically straight up propaganda. I now have an incredibly long reading list and, as always, not enough time in which to read!
Also, learning about censorship and underground publications in Poland during the twentieth century led into what promised to be an exciting conversation about modern-day censorship in the US but then we left that tangent and got back to the topic of discussion. Yay for focused classes but I really want to discuss differences in censorship with somebody now (ie. censorship from the top-down acting prior to publication as in Communist Poland, and censorship acting after publication with bottom-up elements as we have in the US. At least, that's how I boil it down into points.).
The one book I've managed to finish since I got here (besides some Jane Austen books I picked up during my Germany tour to while the times spent by myself on trains and in hostels late at night) is a short historical survey of eastern Europe from 1740-1985. It was a good read, more interesting and less dry than history books often are, but all I got out of it was an idea of the overall trends in eastern and central Europe during the time period covered and the realization (kind of an obvious one) that I know absolutely nothing about European history in general and eastern and central Europe in particular. Also nothing about Russia and Turkey, which were/are both major players in the European arena. Nothing like reading to make you realize how ignorant you really are.
The book I'm currently in the middle of is The Captive Mind by Czesław Miłosz. Read it. It's fascinating. From the back of the book: "Written in the early 1950s, when Eastern Europe was in the grip of Stalinism and many Western intellectuals placed their hopes in the new order of the East, this classic work reveals in fascinating detail the often beguiling allure of totalitarian rule to people of all political beliefs and its frightening effects on the minds of those who embrace it." Miłosz was a Polish emigre who lived in California until the end of Communist rule in Poland. I think he's primarily a poet, and came back to Poland in the 1990s to live in Krakow until his death within the last few years. Krakow is really proud of him because there was a period of a decade or so when he was one of two Nobel laureates for poetry living in Krakow. The other is a woman (yay!) named Wisława Szymborska. Haven't read any of her work yet, but I intend to...thank goodness for the English language bookstore downtown!
Okay, so I posted what I have so far but then I couldn't resist adding a little bit of Szymborska's poetry now that I'm thinking about it. All I've read of her so far is 2 poems that our literature professor gave us in a handout in the first day of class 3 weeks ago. Here's the one that really grabbed me, pretty obviously fitting in with peace-studies Me.
The End and the Beginning by Wisława Szymborska
After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won't
straighten themselves up, after all.
Someone has to push the rubble
to the sides of the road,
so the corpse-laden wagons
can pass.
Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.
Someone must drag in a girder
to prop up a wall,
Someone must glaze a window,
rehang a door.
Photogenic it's not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.
Again we'll need bridges
and new railway stations.
Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.
Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls how it was.
Someone listens
and nods with unsevered head.
Yet others milling about
already find it dull.
From behind the bush
sometimes someone still unearths
rust-eaten arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.
Those who knew
what was going on here
must give way to
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.
In the grass which has overgrown
reasons and causes,
someone must be stretched out
blade of grass in his mouth
gazing at the clouds.
Also, learning about censorship and underground publications in Poland during the twentieth century led into what promised to be an exciting conversation about modern-day censorship in the US but then we left that tangent and got back to the topic of discussion. Yay for focused classes but I really want to discuss differences in censorship with somebody now (ie. censorship from the top-down acting prior to publication as in Communist Poland, and censorship acting after publication with bottom-up elements as we have in the US. At least, that's how I boil it down into points.).
The one book I've managed to finish since I got here (besides some Jane Austen books I picked up during my Germany tour to while the times spent by myself on trains and in hostels late at night) is a short historical survey of eastern Europe from 1740-1985. It was a good read, more interesting and less dry than history books often are, but all I got out of it was an idea of the overall trends in eastern and central Europe during the time period covered and the realization (kind of an obvious one) that I know absolutely nothing about European history in general and eastern and central Europe in particular. Also nothing about Russia and Turkey, which were/are both major players in the European arena. Nothing like reading to make you realize how ignorant you really are.
The book I'm currently in the middle of is The Captive Mind by Czesław Miłosz. Read it. It's fascinating. From the back of the book: "Written in the early 1950s, when Eastern Europe was in the grip of Stalinism and many Western intellectuals placed their hopes in the new order of the East, this classic work reveals in fascinating detail the often beguiling allure of totalitarian rule to people of all political beliefs and its frightening effects on the minds of those who embrace it." Miłosz was a Polish emigre who lived in California until the end of Communist rule in Poland. I think he's primarily a poet, and came back to Poland in the 1990s to live in Krakow until his death within the last few years. Krakow is really proud of him because there was a period of a decade or so when he was one of two Nobel laureates for poetry living in Krakow. The other is a woman (yay!) named Wisława Szymborska. Haven't read any of her work yet, but I intend to...thank goodness for the English language bookstore downtown!
Okay, so I posted what I have so far but then I couldn't resist adding a little bit of Szymborska's poetry now that I'm thinking about it. All I've read of her so far is 2 poems that our literature professor gave us in a handout in the first day of class 3 weeks ago. Here's the one that really grabbed me, pretty obviously fitting in with peace-studies Me.
The End and the Beginning by Wisława Szymborska
After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won't
straighten themselves up, after all.
Someone has to push the rubble
to the sides of the road,
so the corpse-laden wagons
can pass.
Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.
Someone must drag in a girder
to prop up a wall,
Someone must glaze a window,
rehang a door.
Photogenic it's not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.
Again we'll need bridges
and new railway stations.
Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.
Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls how it was.
Someone listens
and nods with unsevered head.
Yet others milling about
already find it dull.
From behind the bush
sometimes someone still unearths
rust-eaten arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.
Those who knew
what was going on here
must give way to
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.
In the grass which has overgrown
reasons and causes,
someone must be stretched out
blade of grass in his mouth
gazing at the clouds.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
We spent this weekend in Zakopane, a ski resort in the Tatra mountains (the highest peaks in the Carpathians) a few hours south of Krakow. We had to catch an early bus on Saturday that involved leaving our dorm a little before 8 and managed to catch the bus after a mad dash from the tram stop to the station. Jagiellonian University had arranged the trip for Rachel, Brad, and me as part of our February orientation program. Brad's suitemate, Viktoria, came along at the last minute which was great because the more people the better! The bus ride took a little over 2 hours because of the snow on the roads, but we got there safely. It was a bit of an adventure to walk around in Zakopane because they never actually clear the sidewalks of snow in the winter. They clear a little bit away and then just pack the rest down so you're walking on several inches of super-packed snow made icy by all of the traffic. We also didn't see a single stroller even though there were kids everywhere because all the parents had little wooden or plastic wagons and just pulled the kids along behind.
So Saturday we got to the hotel too early to check in but left our bags there for the afternoon. We walked down the main streets looking at all of the tourist shops and food stands - Zakopane is the most tourist-y place I've ever been. There are enough stalls selling fairly authentic wool, wood, leather, and fur things that we felt justified to be shopping, and we spent most of the afternoon doing that and sampling the various hot drinks offered everywhere. Lunch was particularly excellent in a tavern sort of place. I had a delicious sour soup with eggs and sausage in it, traditional Polish fare. We crashed around 4:30 due to the early start and the extreme cold in the mountains, so we took a long nap at the hotel before dinner.
It took us a really long time to find the restaurant where we wanted to eat dinner, a place Viktora remembered as really good from eating there with her family 3 years ago. It was a typical mountain lodge with animal heads and skins on the walls and everything made out of wood. The food was really good and there was a live folk group playing in one corner. We stayed there for about 3 hours because the atmosphere was so pleasant and it was fun to watch people dancing to the folk music. We finally left around 11:30 and called it a night after a brief visit to a pub on the main street of town. So a pretty quiet Saturday night, but we were all exhausted!
Our big activity today was a train ride up one of the mountains surrounding Zakopane and a walk along the mountain ridge. Beautiful views everywhere and I went a little crazy with my camera since real mountains are a bit unusual near the Chesapeake. :) It was sunny today and MUCH warmer than yesterday, although we were all ready for a hot lunch by 3 pm. I had a heaping plate full of Polish cabbage and beet salads.
Winnie-the-Pooh in Zakopane!
An old-fashioned mountain rescue St. Bernard dog.
Getting hot chocolate and mulled wine because it was COLD and we'd been wandering for hours.
Puppies for sale! Viktoria wanted to buy one for her grandparents but we couldn't figure out a way to get it back to Krakow since we had to take the bus.
One of the horse-drawn sleighs on Saturday night. Viktoria is asking the driver how to get to the restaurant where we wanted to eat, but we didn't know the name or roughly where it was and could only describe the atmosphere...needless to say, we didn't get very good directions.
There's actually a car under there. How come we don't get this kind of snow in MD/PA??? So awesome.
This monkey was really good at the piano.
In the mountainy-hunting lodgey restaurant for dinner Saturday night. We found after walking around in the cold for about 45 minutes and it was worth the time. The food was good - I had a cream barszcz (beet soup) with potatos in it, and Rachel and I shared some pear slices with whipped cream and chocolate for dessert - and there was live folksy music.
Bells hanging from the ceiling of the restaurant.
Being philosophical? Or something. Anyway, they both look weird. :)
The restaurant was beautiful outside since it's built of wood and looks like an over-sized cabin. It was down a short drive from the road and completely surrounded by huge pine trees. It was also about a 10-15 minute walk from the super crowded downtown area in a residential part of the town.
These pictures taken at night with increased exposure time, which is why the colors look weird. I like them, though.
Sunday afternoon in the tourist trap! This whole long row of stalls just sells mountain cheese. I liked it a lot for the hearty taste although it could be very salty and the fried cheese was a little rubbery and squeaked when we bit into it.
The cheeses!
On the top of Gubałówka mountain. We took a train up to the top then walked 3 km along the ridge and took a chair lift down.
Rachel trying on one of the awesome wool sweaters on sale everywhere. We did most of our snooping in the stalls down in the valley but of course we had to spend some time looking in the shops on top of the mountain as well.
Snowmobiles for rent! I definitely wanted to do this but went with the "it's too expensive and I don't have the right clothes with me" reasoning. I was wearing jeans and my long black city coat. *sigh* It was tempting, though!
Another bin of puppies on the top of the mountain. This was so unfair because how on earth do you say goodbye to that fuzzy face?
On the chair lift coming down. Brad and Viktoria are in the one coming down in the picture although you can't really see them.
Ok, you can kind of see them behind us in this one. Not the best picture of me and check out tha massive sunglasses I bought because I left mine in Krakow!
Views from the chair lift.
Now some views from the valley as we walked to the bus to leave Zakopane.
So Saturday we got to the hotel too early to check in but left our bags there for the afternoon. We walked down the main streets looking at all of the tourist shops and food stands - Zakopane is the most tourist-y place I've ever been. There are enough stalls selling fairly authentic wool, wood, leather, and fur things that we felt justified to be shopping, and we spent most of the afternoon doing that and sampling the various hot drinks offered everywhere. Lunch was particularly excellent in a tavern sort of place. I had a delicious sour soup with eggs and sausage in it, traditional Polish fare. We crashed around 4:30 due to the early start and the extreme cold in the mountains, so we took a long nap at the hotel before dinner.
It took us a really long time to find the restaurant where we wanted to eat dinner, a place Viktora remembered as really good from eating there with her family 3 years ago. It was a typical mountain lodge with animal heads and skins on the walls and everything made out of wood. The food was really good and there was a live folk group playing in one corner. We stayed there for about 3 hours because the atmosphere was so pleasant and it was fun to watch people dancing to the folk music. We finally left around 11:30 and called it a night after a brief visit to a pub on the main street of town. So a pretty quiet Saturday night, but we were all exhausted!
Our big activity today was a train ride up one of the mountains surrounding Zakopane and a walk along the mountain ridge. Beautiful views everywhere and I went a little crazy with my camera since real mountains are a bit unusual near the Chesapeake. :) It was sunny today and MUCH warmer than yesterday, although we were all ready for a hot lunch by 3 pm. I had a heaping plate full of Polish cabbage and beet salads.
Winnie-the-Pooh in Zakopane!
An old-fashioned mountain rescue St. Bernard dog.
Getting hot chocolate and mulled wine because it was COLD and we'd been wandering for hours.
Puppies for sale! Viktoria wanted to buy one for her grandparents but we couldn't figure out a way to get it back to Krakow since we had to take the bus.
One of the horse-drawn sleighs on Saturday night. Viktoria is asking the driver how to get to the restaurant where we wanted to eat, but we didn't know the name or roughly where it was and could only describe the atmosphere...needless to say, we didn't get very good directions.
There's actually a car under there. How come we don't get this kind of snow in MD/PA??? So awesome.
This monkey was really good at the piano.
In the mountainy-hunting lodgey restaurant for dinner Saturday night. We found after walking around in the cold for about 45 minutes and it was worth the time. The food was good - I had a cream barszcz (beet soup) with potatos in it, and Rachel and I shared some pear slices with whipped cream and chocolate for dessert - and there was live folksy music.
Bells hanging from the ceiling of the restaurant.
Being philosophical? Or something. Anyway, they both look weird. :)
The restaurant was beautiful outside since it's built of wood and looks like an over-sized cabin. It was down a short drive from the road and completely surrounded by huge pine trees. It was also about a 10-15 minute walk from the super crowded downtown area in a residential part of the town.
These pictures taken at night with increased exposure time, which is why the colors look weird. I like them, though.
Sunday afternoon in the tourist trap! This whole long row of stalls just sells mountain cheese. I liked it a lot for the hearty taste although it could be very salty and the fried cheese was a little rubbery and squeaked when we bit into it.
The cheeses!
On the top of Gubałówka mountain. We took a train up to the top then walked 3 km along the ridge and took a chair lift down.
Rachel trying on one of the awesome wool sweaters on sale everywhere. We did most of our snooping in the stalls down in the valley but of course we had to spend some time looking in the shops on top of the mountain as well.
Snowmobiles for rent! I definitely wanted to do this but went with the "it's too expensive and I don't have the right clothes with me" reasoning. I was wearing jeans and my long black city coat. *sigh* It was tempting, though!
Another bin of puppies on the top of the mountain. This was so unfair because how on earth do you say goodbye to that fuzzy face?
On the chair lift coming down. Brad and Viktoria are in the one coming down in the picture although you can't really see them.
Ok, you can kind of see them behind us in this one. Not the best picture of me and check out tha massive sunglasses I bought because I left mine in Krakow!
Views from the chair lift.
Now some views from the valley as we walked to the bus to leave Zakopane.
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