Kazimierz

Today Pawel was kind enough to play tour guide with us!

We walked all around the Jewish quarter which is called Kazimierz. King Kazimierz is well liked by Polish Jews because he was the first Polish King to invite Jewish people to come live in Poland (around the 14th century I think). His nickname was Kazimierz the Great and he is on the 50 zloty bill. In the Jewish quarter, we went to the Old Synagogue. It was really very pretty. Everything in Poland, but especially sites related to Judaism, has such a long history. This synagogue (which by the way was a refreshing change from churches and cathedrals!) was not destroyed in WWII but was used as a horse stable. After the war, its function was restored as a religious building.

Then we went to the Jewish cemetery. That was very strange because most all of the tombs are very old, and the tombstones are HUGE. They are giant slabs of cement on them that are placed very close together. Also, they do not appear to be arranged in any kind of organized fashion, they're just all over the place. No neat rows or anything. The tops of the graves were covered in grasses and weeds - it looks like nobody takes care of the cemetery at all. There were very few flowers, but many tombs had rocks on them. Apparently, I'm not sure why, this is common to do for Jewish graves. It started out as just putting a special white stone on the tombs, but nowadays people just put normal looking rocks on them. There are also little lantern like lights at the base of some of the graves. Most of these peoples' relatives though have moved away from Poland so I think that's why most of the graves (which as I said are all mostly old, pre-WWII) look unvisited. It was maybe the most dilapidated looking graveyard I've ever been to. Then there was a somber moment when I heard something like a crack and something a little like a squish. We realized that Pawel had smooshed a snail, enjoying to damp pavement all sprawled out of its shell. He completely smooshed the poor thing on accident, broken shell and snail goo now in a messy, sad pile. I get really sad when animals die. It always makes me sad when living things have their lives cut short. :(

Then Pawel helped us to order zanipanki (sp?). It is sort of like an open faced baguette with layers of warm food on it. I ordered one with salami, cheese, and chives. Little did I know, that in between the bread and the melted cheese (i.e. the first layer of the ... thing) was a secret layer of mushrooms. Then on top of the cheese was the salami, followed by cut up chives, ketchup, and sliced pickles. It was really weird! To get the mushrooms off (no, I did not eat them) I had to peel back the cheese with everything else on it and meticulously get all the yucky pieces out. Pawel loves mushrooms and he made me feel a bit awkward - like it was my fault or something - for not liking them. I tried many times to explain that I just don't like them, I'm not that mature yet ... :)

After lunch, we headed back to Pawel's apartment. Since we've now seen the Jewish quarter, the Wawel castle, and the old city/main square area, there doesn't seem to be too much else to do in terms of walking around and sight seeing. So for the first time our whole trip, we literally just sat inside his apartment for hours. It was productive I guess, and the weather was poopy outside so it was nice to have some down time. Eventually, it was time to eat again and then head out to a club.

We went to two bars and had some Polish beer. The second bar had a dance floor and I actually danced (read: had one too many beers). I'm sure I looked positively awful. I have no clue what time we came home, but I slept like a rock!

So far Poland is interesting because it is the most challenging country we've been to. We're close to our halfway point, the weather is gloomy, we can't pronounce/understand anything, and the history is depressing. It is a very different experience but I am so glad we worked it into our trip.

Sorry, no little fun ending things...