July 8, 2012 Krakow, Poland

July 8, 2012

Thanks to Helise and Magda, who wrote “Free day in Krakow to relax and explore.”  We needed it.  Shayna slept until 10:45 am.  Rebecca climbed out of bed close to noon.  And now, I have a chance to catch up on four days of blogs!

I must say that planning this trip took a great deal of work, numerous Skype calls with Helise, detail after detail after detail..  I write this for a little rachmanut (mercy) on the fact that spaced when it came to packing shirts…  All it took was a pile of T-shirts and I would have been set.  Alas, 5-6 collared sport shirts, a few button downs for Shabbat and by week 2 of the trip, I was done.  No time for laundry mats with this itinerary and hotels charge more than it costs to buy the clothes new.  ($8 for a pair of socks, EXCUSSSSSSEEEEEE  MEEEEE!). 

We’re off to find cheap T-shirts in Krakow..   While you may not consider me a fan of European football (soccer) or the EuroCup but you may see me jogging around Marin with one of my several new (on sale because the games ended last week) EuroCup T-shirts.

(photos when I wear the shirts!)

We indulged in one of Krakow’s famed chocolate cafes (I settled for yoghurt and fruit).











We learned that "lody" means ice cream

We walked back to the Jewish Museum of Galicia.  It was for each of us a powerful and profound visit.  While the museum has just one permanent and one temporary exhibit, it is so well done…and so well timed for the four of us to spend some alone time walking around, reading about the history of Krakow, then of the Holocaust, and reflecting.  Rebecca pulled me over to two images she found meaningful and troubling.  Marci got a giant dose of reality with the images of Auschwitz.  The one that broke my heart….and still haunts me…was a single line from a young girl to her mom:  “When they kill us, mommy, will it hurt?”  Mother’s reply: “No dear, it will only a take a minute and then it will be over.”  It still pains me…and pisses me off…as I write it now.

Shayna asked each of us to pick our favorite image from their temporary exhibit of a Polish photographer who made aliyah and took pictures of both Warsaw and mandate Palestine.

We took in dinner at one of the Jewish restaurants on the same square that hosted the Jewish Woodstock concert.  Happy to say that the prices were on the menu.  Sorry to say the food was overpriced and not so good.  (Someone tell them that a potato latke shouldn’t look like potato koogle). 

Gefilte Fish...

We flirted with the idea of a night time boat ride but instead decided we’d had enough.  We went back to the hotel to pack and get ready for a week’s worth of 1 and 2 nighters across Poland, Belarus, and Lithuania.