My Last Weekend in Poland :(

I can't believe I'm leaving already, it literally feels like I just arrived! This was my last weekend here and I can't think of a better way to have finished my time here. Friday night was Marie's birthday, and one crazy-fun party, and saturday, of course was MY party :) Ten of my closest friends in krakow came to our flat and we started the night out right with champagne, singing, and cake! I've made a video that can describe the night better than any number of adjectives so check it out below.



This week I'm going to try and do all the touristy things I had put off, thinking i had PLENTY of time to get them done! And i've still got to go souvenir shopping for everyone back home... any idea where i can find a 3*5 polish flag??

Party on the Amber Coast

This weekend was fantastic as I finally was able to see the north of Poland and swim (really just wade) in the Baltic Sea! Luke and I planned the trip to Gdansk and then invited pretty much everyone we know in Krakow, and we ended up with a group of 9 coming with us. Me and Luke left early Friday morning (the 4am wake up call was pretty rough), and we rode the morning train to Gdansk, arriving around 1pm. Then we tried to catch a boat to Hel (an incredibly thin, but long peninsula near Gdansk that is supposed to have a really nice beach), but unfortunately it seems to be a pretty popular destination and all the boats were full – I'm pretty sure it's popular more for the name than anything actually that great in the city ;)

So anyway we really wanted to ride a boat while we were in Gdansk so we bought tickets on this pirate ship that was in the harbor and decided to go to Westerplatte, which is where the first fighting of WWII took place in Poland. The Galleon Lew dropped us off in Westerplatte and we found this really nice beach where we killed an hour playing Frisbee and attempting to get in the freezing cold water.

After our pirate cruise we decided to meet up with Pamela (a trainee from Gdansk), in Gdynia. The area of Gdansk is actually comprised of three cities called the tri-city. They are Gdansk (the most scenic of the cities), Sopot (more like a beach resort), and Gdynia (kind of the industrial area of the tri-city).

We went to a beach on Gdynia and caught up with Pamela over a piwo. Then after we had relaxed a bit and gone to her apartment to change, we caught the train back to Gdansk and met up with all the rest of the trainees from Gdansk. We went to a bunch of different clubs in Gdansk, and soon realized that everyone wasn't kidding when they said that the only good nightlife in the tri-city is in Sopot! But we had a pretty late night in Gdansk and then headed back for some sleep before the rest of our group joined us Saturday.

Saturday we met up with the other 7 who had taken the night train Friday night and we toured Gdansk for a bit, and then decided to go to Sopot for some fun in the sun J We played on the beach, a brave few decided to swim, and then we went for some polish cuisine before checking out the nightlife we'd heard so much about.

Sopot definitely was the place to be on a Saturday night. The clubs are all actually ON the beach and the one we went to, CocoCabana, was mostly fun latin music. Everyone was pretty exhausted from all the traveling so we headed back early and got some sleep before our last day in Gdansk.

For our last day, the good weather deserted us and we had deal with some pretty cold, rainy nastiness. Since we couldn't spend much time outdoors, we went to the amber museum, and were pleasantly surprised. I can easily say that it is one of my favorite museums ever… I had no idea you could make such beautiful things from amber! Check out this picture below, it was my favorite piece.

At the end of the day, we fought our way back on the night train, managed to scrounge some seats, and tried to sleep as much as possible before we pulled into Krakow at 4am, most of us having to catch just a few hours of sleep before going to work that morning!

This week we have THREE birthday parties as well as Frisbee and soccer AND a trip to Ocjow to fill the time… if anyone's in Krakow on the 28^th, give me a call, my bday's going to be CrAzY!

Ultimate Frisbee Champs :)

We have a weekly tradition (now that the weather's nice) and it is some pretty intense ultimate frisbee!! We try and meet once a week on Blonia (this massive field in the middle of the city), and get some exercise, followed by a well earned piwo. This week almost 20 people showed up to play and we made new friends, laughed, and sweat A LOT ;)

The above pic is only one side of our big table... (there were definitely more boys there than this pic suggests)

Tomorrow Luke and I will be up at 5am to catch the train to Gdansk, and then 8 more trainees/friends from krakow will be meeting us saturday. Party on the Baltic!!

Aww, it's nice to know you're missed!

Here's a picture my family sent from my brother's graduation party... i'm not gonna lie, i got a little misty eyed =)

Possibly the best weekend EVER!

Wow i feel like this is the first chance i've had to just sit down and relax since thursday! This weekend was jam packed with awesomeness and I've got some pretty sweet pics to prove it =)

Friday, I finally made it to Auschwitz. There's something incredibly creepy about that place. Over 1 million people were murdered there and I swear you could almost feel it in the energy of the place. A perpetual cloud just hangs there. Literally as soon as i walked into the compound, i wanted to leave. I stuck it out for the better part of four hours out of an obligation brought about by guilt and the belief that, as one of the exhibits said, "those who ignore history, are doomed to repeat it." But after what i felt was a respectable period, i hopped the next bus back to Krakow and looked forward to the festival of street theater as some welcome distraction from the horrors i had just witnessed.

Knowing that we had a full day planned Saturday, we left the festival relatively early friday night and headed home to get a full night's sleep. This turned out to be a very good thing because catching the morning bus to Zakopane (the mountains in the south of Poland), was exhausting, and we still had a 6km hike ahead of us! We checked out the town of Zakopane (really just one street of stores), and then took the rail car to the top of one mountain to get some sweet pics of the Tatras. We enjoyed our Zywiecs with an amazing view of the mountain before heading out on our 3 hour hike to a nearby town. Along the way there were beautiful views of the countryside and lots of cows and farmers to keep us entertained... which unfortunately distracted us enough that we lost our way, and ended up a few kilometers from our original destination. It all ended up working out well though because we got to cross the border into Slovakia and even crashed a wedding :)

We eventually found our way back to Zakopane, via a bus, and made it safely back to Krakow... just in time to pass out and get recharged for another long day on sunday.

Sunday was the first really good, hot weather we've had in weeks, so naturally we had to check out one of the lakes around Krakow. We decided to not go to Kapelanka Lake, which is right behind our apartment, and instead we wanted to rent bikes and ride to one of the more developed lakes outside the city. 6 of us trainees headed out of the center, ready for an adventurous 10 km ride to lake kipowlen. We finally made it after 3 hours and one accident (mine of course). But it was totally worth it.

So today i'm a bit tired, DEFINITELY sore, and i can't wait for next weekend!! Gdansk will be awesome, it's a resort town in the north of Poland on the baltic sea. Also if you want to see more of my pictures, you can see them all here.

It feels like it's all starting to wind down...

So i had one of my last weekends in krakow last weekend. The next few weeks will be spent doing a lot of last minute traveling, trying to see the best of Poland :) And then my last weekend in krakow will be my BIRTHDAY, and i can't think of a better way to spend it!

Sooo this weekend i finally made it to check out the Wieliczka Salt Mines. They're 700 years old and definitely not what you think of when you think of mines. Everything was very polished and there was an AMAZING chapel where people pay big money to get married (150 meters below ground)! And you could even lick the walls of the mines and taste the salt, it was pretty cool...

We celebrated Alina and Carlos' going away parties friday and saturday, and welcomed two new trainees, one from the czech republic and one from Romania.

Then we had a nice lazy sunday with the first good weather we'd had in awhile and played frisbee by the river. We got our usual dinner at Babci and then listened to the jazz festival for awhile followed by some stand-up comedy of an ex-trainee. It was my first time seeing a stand-up show live, and the comedians 2nd show, so you can imagine it was a little disappointing, but i'm sure he'll improve with practice! (tip to aspiring comedians: it's probably not a good idea to keep saying how much you suck on stage, it won't take long for the crowd to believe you)

So this weekend i'm going to Auschwitz, as well as Zakopane (the gorgeous mountains about 2 hrs from krakow), and maybe a castle in some national park outside of krakow too... we'll see how it goes ;)

happy 4th of july!

This is my first, truly homesick day, that i've had since i've arrived in Poland. Sure there were a few things i missed from home (drying machines, air conditioning, microwaves), but all those things weren't that big a loss. Today though, is independence day. The ultimate American holiday... and i'm really sad to miss it. My family is all together at the beach right now, and i really wish i could be there with them. So in honor of this great holiday, here's a little video that reminds me of home right now :)

check this out!

Kanye West "Stronger" -- I've got this song on repeat in my head!

The Jewish Festival and more...

This weekend was filled with lots of visitors and random cultural experiences :) We had two slovakians visiting from bratislava, jenny (another trainee) visiting from kielce, and lots of festivals to attend celebrating the end of the jewish festival.

Friday night we greeted the slovakians and had a low key night, seeing as they had just driven to krakow all the way from bratislava! we headed home pretty early since we knew we had a long day of sightseeing ahead of us saturday.

Saturday we did the typical tourist stuff, showing our guests a lot of the sites of the city. The town square was full of a bunch of classic/antique cars for some event so we got some cool pics with those, and then we headed to babci for a classic polish dinner and caught some concerts in Kazimierz. The concerts were really cool because it was all jewish music and a bunch of the locals were doing typical jewish dances that you see in movies at weddings, you know where they're all in a circle holding hands and doing weird kicks, it was VERY entertaining!



We were all exhausted after touring the city all day so we went home early and got some sleep. Sunday was a nice lazy day that turned into a spanish cultural presentation when Maria and Carlos decided to cook up all the food they'd brought back from spain and made a power point with a bunch of info on their hometowns and everything. The food was delicious!! Then we had to walk off our feast on a leisurely stroll to the lake where we chilled out for a bit before all our guests headed home.

All in all it was another great weekend in krakow...

next weekend i'm gonna try and make it to auschwitz and the wieliecka salt mines, hopefully i'll actually make it this weekend!