Other Interesting Places Outside of Krakow but Still Inside Poland
Alex Ronowicz, Andreas Wadensjo and Martin Pachinski at Poland's National Shrine, Jasna Gora in Czestachowa. The monastery is most famous for a painting called the Black Madonna which was presented to the church in 1384. To this day it still attracts millions of pilgrims, including us. The monastery is also famous for being one of the only places to withstand the invasion of the Swedes in 1655, the Black Madonna was giving credit for this miracle.
Preslava Lazarova and Crina Barladeanu in Czestachowa.
Morski Oko the main lake at Zakopane, the Polish mountain retreat for skiing and hiking in the Tatry Mountains.
Hitching a ride in Zakopane.
Silwia Oleksy snowboarding in Zakopane.
Lost in Zakopane, Silvia Oleksy and Preslava Lazarova
Stranded in Zakopane
Friends I met in Zakopane Beata Gasienica and Mochta from Egypt
Beata again
More new friends met in Zakopane. Valentine from Ukraine and Joanna Walkowiak
Us having a great time in an underground bar in Zakopane. This was what the Polish call our Zielony Noc, or Green Night. When you go on holiday for a few days if you're really having a good time then you are supposed to stay up until the sun rises on your last day there and that is a Zielony Noc. Well it was definitely a Green Night for us but we all got off to our respective homes okay. In fact Valentine traveled with me to Krakow where he lived also.
We made friends with this lovely couple as they pretty much had the only open seats at their table in the whole bar. They also participated and succeeded in the Green Night although the guy fell asleep at the table a couple times It still counts. If you really want to hear a great story ask me what happened to us at this bar that night. Trust me it's a pretty good tale.
I hiked to the top of Giewont, I make friends where ever I go.
The Birkinau concentration camp which is an extension of the more well known (for all the wrong reasons) Auschwitz.
What's left Birkinau after the nazis tried to destroy the evidence of their crimes.
Auschwitz proper.
I went to Auschwitz with Silwia Oleksy and we both agreed that the whole day was some kind of twisted contradiction. The gloom and history of what we came to see was almost overshadowed by the beautiful spring day which was blossoming all around us after a bitterly cold winter.
I visited Wieliczka which are the deep Polish salt mines just outside of Krakow with my boss Malgorzata Tatar. I worked for her teaching English to school children at the Word English School.
The Chapel of the Blessed Kinga entirely carved out of salt, including the chandeliers
The deepest parts of the mine are 327 meters below the surface with over 300 km of tunnels.
The town hall of Wroclaw one of the other more interesting towns near Krakow.
Wroclaw town square (rynek)
The spectacular ruins of Ogrodzieniec Castle. This was a great day trip from Krakow. I visited Ogrodzieniec with Beata Malecka.
One of communism's great contributions to the city of Warsawa, the National Palace of Science and Culture
Warsaw town square
Most of Warsaw was destroyed in WWII. Though the city has been meticulously restored the tale of Warsaw is truly one of the more tragic stories of the war. Near the end of the war the Nazis were on the run from the Russians in the East and Americans / British in the West. On August 1, 1944 the Russians arrived on the East side of the Vistula River, the Polish citizens saw this as their opportunity to rise up against the Germans while the Russians attacked from the East. This would have been a brilliant plan but in the end Stalin's army never came to the aid of the besieged Polish instead they just waited while the Polish citizenry basically annihilated themselves fighting the Germans in the final "Warsaw Uprising". After the decimation of the Polish people the nazis raised approximately 90 percent of the city to the ground, and vacated the city. After all this was over (five months later and about half the population of the city) the noble Russians finally marched into the city as liberators (or tyrants under a new name).
The Warsaw you see here looks old, in fact it looks much as it did in the 17th and 18th centuries but this is all due to the diligence of the citizens of Warsaw during the reconstruction of the capitol city of Poland.
This is Nicole Walach. I was on the train to Prague and saw Nicole and her little brother speaking Polish to the conductor, then the next moment they were speaking perfect English to each other. I commented on it and they told me that like myself they were Americans living in Poland to learn Polish Language and learn about the country of their family heritage. Well I talked with their mother for a long time on the train and we said our goodbyes as we arrived at the Prague station but strangely enough a about a month later Nicole spotted me in church in the small town of Rabka on Palm Sunday where we took this photo. But this was not the last time we met, when I went to Woijnia to see the Pope again I ran into Nicole Walach and her little brother amidst thousands of other people.
These are the traditional colors of Palm Sunday in Rabka and the tall flower trees are the various palms made by the locals for the Palm competition.
Malgarzata Pisiut here helped me to find the bridge which crosses the river to the country of Czech Republic from the Polish city of Cieszyn.
The town of Lublin. I visited Lublin among other towns with Chris Canales
Old school Lublin
Kazimierz Dolny on Monday after Easter Sunday. This day is known as wet Monday or Mokry Poiniedzialek. On this day after Easter the children go around wetting unsuspecting passerby's. The town of Kazimierz Dolny was a perfect place to watch this celebration because there is a fountain in the center of the rynek where the boys reloaded their bottles and squirtguns and then attacked innocent tourists mostly beautiful girls. Great spectator sport.
Another town we visited (me and Chris) Zamosc'
This is pretty much the only photo I took in Vilno, Lithuania because on the one hand it rained for the 2 days we were there and on the other I drank to much of the strong dark Lithuanian beer on the first night and was hung over one whole day.
