Krakow, Czestochowa and Zakopane, Poland

Last stop Krakow! We arrived at 6 something on a Sunday morning and Peter promptly ran to the city square and kissed the ground of his ancestoral motherland. We then wandered around with our backpacks on our backs until a breakfast shop opened and we could drink some coffee and eat some eggs.

Our hostel, only a few blocks from the main square, was full of young, sleepy travelers just waking up when we arrived. We promptly set out to explore the city, the multitude of churches and the emerging flea market opening up in across the cobblestoned town square where Peter bought a strange horn that he had trouble getting back through customs.

Poland has the highest percentage of Catholic religious people I have ever seen. It is not uncommon to see entire flocks of nuns and priest after robed priest strolling down the streets. It also has a great collection of great looking older people dressed to the nines.

We spent the afternoon in Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter, visiting synogogues and museums. We bought tickets for a live Klezmer that evening and followed it with a dinner of blueberry pierogi and wine.







The next day we headed off by train for our long awaited pilgrimage to Czestochowa - home of the Black Madonna. Because of all the pilgrims at the monastery, we were only able to get within about 100 feet of the actual painting of this Polish Queen as mass was being said, but we felt sanctified nonetheless. Coming back to Krakow, our friend and Jesuit priest Artur picked us up for a tour of the Southern hills of Poland and some more pierogi, this time followed by vodka, before we called it a night. In the morning, we had time only for a short stroll before heading off to the airport to begin our journey home.