AH...one of my many homelands! Mother to polski ogorkis, perogies, and many people who have `ski`in their last names. Hoorah! So we arrived here this morning after a less-than-pleasant-but-more-pleasant-than-the-last night train.

Here were our predictions:

- It was at one point behind the iron curtain, so we were expecting grey, drab buildings with graffiti.

- Good food

- Well, we actually came here not knowing what the city was like at all, and boy were we in for a surprise.

Leaving the train station, we were greeted by sleepy eyed semit vendors (or semitists, as my book likes to call them) who sell these awesome bagel like delicaces for around 22 cents. Poland has their own currency, and the euro seems to be worth around 4 times as much, but we aren`t sure yet. When we first exited the train station and plopped onto the main square, wereceived our first impressions of Krakov, Poland, our first Eastern Eurpean country. It was bright, clean, smelled really good, and had beautiful (and I mean beautiful when I say beautiful) parks with castles and cool gardens with statues of unknown men. Our hostel is located in front of this park, so we spent the first portion of our morning shift sleeping on a bench as we watched numerous poles and MANY backpackers en route to wherever they were going. This, this was really nice. So, Krakov is diveded into a few areas that we plan to visit; The Kazimierz District (Jewish District) and the Main Market Square Area. The city is then surrounded by countryside, and there are many other hidden quarters throughout the city that we hope we will walk through. Krakov isn`t that big according to the map.

Another place we will be visiting during our stay will be Auschwitz and Birkenau. They are not far from here, and we both feel it`s important that we go to see these places. Supposedly, the towns themselves have flourished and it is quite different from what you would expect. We`ve also been told to brace ourselves for when we see the camps, as it can get quite emotional and we don`t doubt that. We just really hope it isn`t a huge tourist trap with stands selling magnets and postcards and that it is more of a memorial. Keep our fingers crossed!

Well, we are off to hunt for some real Polish food; authentic burritos! Hey, don`t judge! We`ve been salsaless for a month! We`re dying here!

Dearest Barbara: We are very excited to see you all in Potsdam! We are still unsure of our arrival time, but we will let you know so we can give a heads up to the hotel.

Dearest Callie: We appreciate your great enthousiasm. We also think you are, how shall we say, TOO excited and definately need to be sure that your mental state is better by the time you get here. ESPECIALLY considering your birthday is so soon...poor girl, won`t be able to open her presents properly ;-)

Polish People in Tasha`s family: Anybody know anyone who lives in Krakov? Any significant places or old locales to visit?

PS. None of the photos that are displayed in the Polish sections are really Poland, for some reason this website has ZERO photographs of Poland! Bah!