Getting My Polish On!

I have made it to the motherland. Well the motherland of Dzido anyways. I have been in Krakow for the last couple of days, and I must say that this is one of the nicest cities I have ever visited. If you ever want a taste of Eastern Europe, you must come here. There is so much history all around, and if that makes you want to go to sleep, the nightlife is awsome because it is a university town (1 in 8 people here are students).

We are staying with Dzido's cousin Victoria, which has been great. Gives us access to a kitchen and no paying for the room. Two things that I really really like. So the first day that we spent here we just went and did the touristy stuff in Krakow. There are some beautiful churches and some awsome castles. Then we got to watch the Poland vs. Germany game in the world cup. Now there was a lot of hype going into this game. Some German guys were wearing shirts that said "In 1939 it took 6 weeks, in 2006 it will take 90 minutes" Plus Poland has never beaten Germany and there are a couple of players on the German team who had dual-citizenship and chose to play for Germany. We watched the game in a basement bar in Poland that also brewed itw own beer. Tasty stuff. I am not sure that I can describe the atmosphere of this place. Dzido has some pictues, but even that doesn't do it. Whenever Poland did anything, even just taking the ball over half, the place erupted into Polish cheering songs. It was amazing. Even I was yelling "Polska!!" at the top of my lungs. Unfortunately, Germany scored in extra time just before the end of the game to win 1-0, but it was still the best soccer game I have ever seen. So much fun.

Today we did a little day trip on bikes to a salt mine. Sounds weird, but it was really cool. This is the oldest salt mine in Europe and has been worked for like 600 years. Within it there is a chapel made entirely out of stone. They still do weddings and hold mass there 130m underground! There is also a ballroom that has New Years parties. It was quite something. The sun was bright for the ride there and back and I'd say we biked between 25 and 30km by the end. Oh and we stopped at a park and Dzido played on the kids stuff, hence the picture. But we got the see the Polish countryside (dirt roads and farms everywhere). It was really cool. So tonight we are both tired. We went to a perogie restaurant for dinner. It was good....but Dzido's grandma sent us better ones in Montreal. Not bad though.



Oh, and a couple more signs.









This one says you may exist. Go ahead. Exist all you want. It's a pro-existance zone.













Seriously, if your little dog makes this much mess, don't poop and scoop. RUN to a vet NOW!













Ok, so it's clearly a school crossing on top. But the bottom one? Beware of little girls carrying HUGE candy? Do you get points if you take her down? I don't know.









Next we have one more day here and then off to Budapest before making the big jump to Spain.