Krakow.

Last Friday, Robyn (from UPS) and I flew my favorite airline ever (Ryanair) from rainy Milan to cold Krakow. Not knowing a word of Polish, let alone the name of the Polish currency, we magically made it from the airport to the hostel (called "Zodiac Hostel" in case you're interested in all the fun names of the places I stay) not too late in the afternoon. We then followed the green route on the map of Krakow that follows the "Jewish Heritage Tour." It started at the "new" Jewish cemetery (I think its called "new" because people are still being buried there today because it definitely had tombstones dating back hundreds of years). We walked around here for a really, really long time, winding along the gravel and stone path, through layers of dusty autumn leaves. The trees were bare, just branches sticking naked up into the sky. Bright, lush moss grew over too many tombstones. Home to snails and slugs (the hard freeze has yet to knock them out). It was probably the perfect beginning to a weekend focused on the loss of the European Jews but that didn't make it any less depressing. Tombstones for children, for families, Holocaust memorials for the 12 people in one family that had died. And, as usual, I saw my own Jewish name in Hebrew on more tombstones than I was comfortable with.

After the cemetary, we followed the green route on the map to many synagogues in the old Jewish neighborhood. But because it was Friday and Krakow gets dark VERY early , many of them were closing their tourist services for Shabbat. We walked to most of them but didn't go in many of them. Most of them were just converted into bookshops anyways. That night we walked through the covered market in the main plaza. We found Mexican food for dinner...random but us Americans are homesick for comforts like Mexican food. We had an early night Friday but randomly ran into another study-abroad UPS student at our hostel! Small world!

(Saturday we went to Auschwitz.)

Saturday, upon returning, we found a bookstore with an English section in this massive mall by the train station and we both purchased Madame Bovary for the class we have together. We went back to the hostel and met some of the other people staying there. Some Canadians, some Slovenians, and an Israeli! Chitchat, travel story exchange, some singing. You know, good ole hostel random encounters and conversation. I cuddled up in my Irish sweater from the previous weekend to combat the Polish cold and stayed toasty in the golden lit common room. Robyn and I got Kebabs and Falafel for the equivalent of 2 euro for dinner and then the hostel treated us to some lemon vodka for free!!! This hostel apparently hosts weekend events for its guests such as "vodka tasting" and then they took us out. Friendliest hostel staff I ever met.

Sunday morning Robyn and I got up early to try and see the Leonardo da Vinci portrait "Lady with Ermine" but the Krakow art museum that this portrait is in is currently closed for renovations and the portrait has been moved to Warsaw. Disappointing to say the least. So instead I got one of those pretzel bagel-esque bread products that are on every street corner (if not on all four corners of every intersection) and some coffee from the Starbucks in the mall. My obligatory I'm-out-of-Italy Starbucks run. Then we headed back to the train station, to the airport, and to rainy, rainy Milano.