The City of Jan Paweł II

This past weekend I went to Krakow, and it was certainly the most religious trip I've had yet, and the cheapest. I went with Carlye's program, so my train and lodging was paid for, with the exception of my ride to Vienna. One my ride to Vienna I met Chaim, a Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn whose parents had escaped Hungary prior to World War II. He talked the whole time, telling anecdotes about Hasidim, America, Eastern Europe pre-WWII, and many many jokes related to all of the above. He knew Hungarian, as his parents spoke it, and he also knew Brazilian Portuguese (from living in Sao Paulo), Yiddish (and hence German), Hebrew, plus some Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. He was a pretty impressive fellow, and very nice, he even gave me some of his kosher snacks. He also gave me a book about the power of prayer. Throughout the conversation, he referred to Carlye as my wife, and Carlye's parents as my mother and father-in-law, despite the fact that I made it clear we were dating, not married. He also said I would make a good father, and gave me a big hug when we finally disembarked in Vienna. It was a lot of fun.
Once in Vienna, Carlye and I walked around Vienna a bit, as this was the last time I'd see it. We saw a huge concert in front of the Rathaus (city hall basically, an imposing Gothic structure) where the Vienna Boys Choir sang a bit, which was quite impressive.
Saturday morning we took the long train to Krakow. Some 7 1/2 hours, with one 30 minute layover. Upon arrival, we checked in to our fairly swanky hotel, and then met up with a Macalester student who was studying in Krakow (they're everywhere, those Mac kids). She took us to the main center and we ate at a log cabin (I had Polish Pigos, which was sauerkraut, pork and mushrooms in some sort of sauce), then went to an underground cellar bar. While we were out and about, a soccer game had just finished, and the streets were filled with near rioting fans, and lots and lots of policja (Krakow has more police officers out at all times than any city I have visited, and maybe I just noticed more cause they're dressed in scary black and have large guns). It was a good night though.
Sunday we had a guided tour of the city. . . in German. So I didn't understand much, needless to say. However, I'll instead describe the layout of the city. The city is perched just to the north of the Wista River. At the southern edge lies the castle district, to the east of that the Jewish District (or the former Jewish district anyway: Pre-WWII, Poland was about 25% Jewish, and only 60% Catholic, now it's 96% Catholic and maybe 1% Jewish), and straight north of the castle lies the Old Town. The Old Town is the center of modern Krakow. Egg-shaped, it is surrounded by a park ring, and outside of this the city extends every direction. Krakow is extremely walkable, and inside this Old Town sector, there are very few cars at all. It was marvelous. It's a very old city, and is filled with oh-so-many churches. More churches than I've ever seen in a town. And they are all Catholic churches, so they're all big and pretty. The things I did understand on the tour: Copernicus studied in Krakow, we saw his university; everyone loves JPII, his picture is everywhere; the Polish and Lithuanians had a long standing partnership, so in the state museum, there was lots of Lithuanian stuff, they wouldn't let me take pictures though; more things that I've forgotten.
Monday we toured Auschwitz, which was certainly one of the most mind-boggling things I've seen so far. Over a million people killed there (about 430,000 Hungarians) and the size of the place is just so overwhelming. I didn't take any pictures, because I just really didn't care to. It certainly left me with so many questions, mainly just Why? Why didn't the Allies do anything about it (they showed us aerial footage the Allies had that was taken in early 1944, after that photo was taken over 500,000 people were murdered there. And Why do we consistently allow it to happen again (Bosnia, Darfur, many more) when so many people said 'Never again'? After the visit, we went out to eat at a Jewish restaurant in Krakow. It was amazing. I had Jewish roast beef with latkes, and Passover curd cheese for dessert. While we ate a klezmer (bagpipes, clarinet and upright bass) band played, with a Yiddish singer, and they were awesome.
Tuesday we trained back to Vienna, and then I trained back to Budapest, I was on a train for well over 10 hours. But I can say that I see why Poles like the United States. The terrain looks extremely similar, the countryside is woods that look just like Minnesota, and there are tons of bison, plus it's similar weather to the Midwest.
Alright, now for the pictures, again in a fairly random order.

This is a sculpture outside of one of the many Franciscan churches in town. I don't know exactly what the angels signify, if anything, but the stones in front were placed one by one for all the years of John Paul's time as Pope.


Here is one of the places in Krakow where JPII used to live, so there's a picture of him int he window.


Here is the main Basilica in town, St. Mary's (like Minneapolis). It's gorgeous inside. I have a picture of the inside below. The left spire there is owned by the city, and a bugler plays in the four cardinal directions every hour.


This is the last remaining tower and city wall section that formerly surrounded the city. In the foreground on the right is the tour group that I couldn't understand.


This was a fun building I liked. I don't know what it is.


This is in the inside of St. Mary's Basilica. That altarpiece is the largest of it's kind in the world and carved in 1477. It features St. Ladislaus and St. Adalbert, the patron saints of Krakow and Poland. Also the main piece is Mary Falling Asleep. It was amazing. Also inside the church there was a St. Agnes chapel.


On Sunday we saw a giant procession of monks, nuns, priests, altarboys, and altargirls(?). I saw more monks and nuns than I've ever seen, and of so many different orders.


This was the castle district, which was simply gorgeous. That tall spire is St. Ladislaus' cathedral, where all the former kings are buried.


This was on the way in to the castle district, you can see the cathedral spire again. There's Carlye in the middle there. But the reason I took the picture was the bagpipers. They were all over the city, and all of them made me think of Grandpa, so I really liked it. So here is one in traditional dress.


Here is one of the many Franciscan churches. The story goes that the church is so small that all the apostles have to stand outside, so there they are lined up in front.

I Didn't Want To Go To Chelsea

Just got back from London last night, and I can certainly say that city is amazing. I arrived late Wednesday night, stayed 4 full days, and left Monday afternoon, so only like 4 1/2 days, really, but it felt like quite a while. Enough that I felt a little bit at-homeish there. I stayed with my friend Matt (both future, and ex- roomie). Anyway, rundown of activities followed by pictures.

Wednesday night: Arrived late at Luton Airport, drove in to the city on a bus for an hour. I was exhausted, but giddy to be driving on the wrong side of the road and seeing signs in English. After meeting Matt in central London, we rode out to his dorm in Camberwell. Along the way I found a Liverpool scarf on the ground, so that was my free souvenir for the trip.

Thursday: Went to the National Gallery, saw many cool paintings. Saw Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, King's College (where Matt goes to school), had a pint at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (where Dickens wrote things) and then played a trivia game at a pub on the King's campus. The pub had glorious views of the Thames.

Friday: Went to Borough Market, the most incredible place in all of London. Stall after stall of the most delicious food. All high quality stuff, relatively cheap, plus free samples. We walked around eating free samples and buying things for about 3 hours. I bought a lamb burger with blue-veined Stilton cheese, a berry smoothie, a chorizo sandwich with peppers and rocket, and apple-raspberry juice. Free samples included the most delicious mushroom pate I could imagine, many olives stuffed with various things, balsamic vinegar syrup with orange peel, fancy cheeses, delicious pesto, sausages, jams (strawberry jam with champagne was my favorite), and much more. After Borough we walked across the London Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral, walked back over the Millennium Bridge (a fun footbridge connecting the two sights) to the Tate Modern. Saw the Globe Theater on the way. After bouncing around the gigantic Tate for a while, we walked along the Thames and laughed at many H.M. Bateman prints for awhile. We crossed Westminster Bridge and saw the Houses Of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. We ate Thai food and stayed up until 8 in the morning chatting about whatever we could think of.

Saturday: Went to see Stonehenge. £30 total, 8 hours total on a bus, for a couple of rocks. But it was incredibly cool. And fun headsets provided (unintentionally) funny commentary. We also saw Salisbury, which was a beautiful little town complete with soaring cathedral, and Southampton, which was one of the uglier towns I've ever seen. But at Southampton we did see the port where the Titanic set sail. It was a very S day.

Sunday: Went to the British Museum and saw all the things that the Brits stole from the rest of the world. It was pretty impressive. Then went and had a picnic in Hyde Park! It was a beautiful day and we played (and invented) many games, and ate a lot of junk food, all in a beautiful park. After eating fish and chips, we were all too exhausted to do anything more, so we hung out and talked.

Monday: Saw the Changing of the Guards, which was horrifically boring, I wish I would have gone to the Victoria & Albert Museum instead, but ah well, I'm allowed one mistake. Saw 10 Downing Street and had a beautiful walk through St. James Park. Ate an English breakfast, which was delightful, as I had been missing proper breakfasts. It consists of one sunny side up egg, two thick slices of English-style Bacon, sausage, beans, and toast. I still had a little time left, so I rode the Tube (they do actually say 'Mind the Gap' a lot on the tube) over to Blackfriars and had one last pint before catching my bus back to the airport.

Observations: It was really expensive. The pound spends exactly like the dollar, except it's worth twice the amount of the dollar, so everything is double the price of what it would be in the States. Public transit was again amazing, the buses (all double-deckered and fun) and the Tube provide an impressive network. The food wasn't as bad as I had heard, but then again I didn't eat that much English food. The weather couldn't make up its mind. It kept switching from raining and cold to warm and sunny constantly. But my last two days were gorgeous weather, so I was pleased. Mayoral elections were going on while I was there, and they do a far far better job of getting the word out and getting people to vote. The U.S. could learn a lot. The City itself didn't look like any other European city I had been too. Maybe because it's so much older. It didn't have the monolithic 6 story apartment building with shops on the first floor thing going on. All the building were different heights, skinny, different styles and colors all crammed in. The streets were a mess, not on a grid at all. Plus with all this was thrown in a lot of modern architecture. So it looked both older and newer than Budapest. Which I guess it is. Anyway, here are the pictures, if you're still reading. They aren't in any order.

Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Monument:



Big Ben:


Houses of Parliament on the Thames (that's Matt on the right there):


Tower Bridge:



Whitehall Street:



Stonehenge:


Salisbury (the river is the Avon):


St. James Park with the London Eye in the background:


Westminster Abbey:


And thats that.