Sunday 7/31 -
We spent the majority of the day on Dora today but made the most of it by watching movies and Entourage episodes. We watched "The Sound of Music" which was our Austrian movie and "The Boy With The Stripped Pajamas" as our preparation for Auschwitz on Tuesday. "The Sound of Music" was hilarious because it had the whole bus happily singing along and conversely "The Boy With The Stripped Pajamas" was about the Nazi concentration camps and it had the whole bus crying. Nonetheless, I would say it was one of our better days on Dora as the time seemed to pass by so quickly!!
We arrived into Krakow only to find rain and traffic awaiting us. Most of us have been pretty annoyed by our unfortunate cold and drizzly weather lately and these circumstances only dimmed our moods. However, we pressed on and went straight into our walking tour and spent the afternoon seeing the highlights of Krakow. I couldn't believe that despite my recent irritation with weather and the woes of traveling, I was instantly in love! It was unlike any city we have been to lately and in all seriousness, it was a breath of fresh air! I didn't take many pictures because of the rain but here are a few.
Below is a picture of a random bunch of "Where's Waldo" guys (they call them "Where's Wally" in Australia and New Zealand) who were running around in the main square of Krakow! Weird...
Monday 8/1 -
I started my day by learning a new thing from the Aussies and Kiwis. Apparently on the first day of the month they have "pinch and a punch on the first day of the month" which results in a bunch of pinching, screaming, and chasing. I of course, the ignorant American, literally had no idea what was going on and thought they were acting awfully bazaar! After 43 days, it is still so much fun for me to learn about all the differences between our countries! Anyway Amanda, Leisha, Kieta, and I spent the whole day together and had an amazing day! We started our morning by checking out the underground cave that once housed the mythical Dragon of Krakow. We were told that once we made our way through the dragon's den still alive, we would meet a true fire breathing dragon at the end! Haha! We sure did alright...
So here we are risking our lives to take a photo with the vicious beast!
After we barely escaped the fire breathing dragon alive, we sauntered through the city and stopped in cafe to enjoy morning tea (I have yet to start drinking tea or coffee but it is a great time for me to people watch so I love morning tea). Our next stop was the salt mines. However, to reach our destination we had to embark on an adventure including taking the public bus 30 minutes out of the city and walking down 400 stairs (32 floors, nearly 800 ft).
We had a local but English speaking guide who showed us around the old salt mines. The tour was three hours long and we still only saw 1% of the mines. She said it would have taken us a full week or longer to walk through the mines in their entirety. In many places they have sculptures, and rooms comprised completely of salt. Literally the floors, walls, and ceilings were all salt. She even told us to lick it if we didn't believe her but to stay away from the sculptures in order preserve them! The tour was really fascinating. I was only able to sneak a couple of photos as you had to pay extra to take pictures but we all chipped in to have Amanda take them and she is going to give me copies later.
I don't know if you can see, but this a picture of all the levels of stairs leading down to the salt mines.
Here was our awesome tour guide!
This is "The Last Supper" carved in salt.
And here is me licking the salt walls to find out if it was real... just kidding, that's disgusting!!!
Here is a silly picture of us as we were leaving the mines!
We ended our day by eating at The Hard Rock Cafe, which we are all aware is not a local Polish restaurant, but it was amazing! We have had some pretty awful meals the last few nights and we were all happy to give up Polish delicacies to indulge in some yummy Americanized meals! I even found ranch!!! The girls could not understand why this made me so happy but I have not stopped smiling since dinner! Now we are back at our hotel preparing for bed as we have a 5:30am wake up time. We are stopping of in Auschwitz tomorrow morning and doing a tour of the old concentration camps on our way to Prague. We have been forewarned that it will be a very emotional morning but an informative one nonetheless. On a brighter note, I absolutely cannot wait to get to Prague tomorrow! Our next two days are going to be jam packed with festivities so I will try and catch up with you before I leave Prague but I may be in Berlin before I can write another post. Beckles, I am definitely going to find Zero Bar and take some pictures. Do you know anyone there anymore that I could ask for?!
I love you all and I can't wait to see you soon. Tomorrow begins the week countdown until I am home... I seriously can't believe I have been traveling for 6 weeks already :)
Love,
Lindsay
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Krakow, Poland
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