Krakow, Poland

[nibot]

Left Slovakia and cut through the Czech Republic with a one hour stop in a little Czech town, came into Poland when the last three cars of the Warsawa-bound train were cut off and sent here to Krakow (as intended). Here I am in the ancient city of Krakow, it's a fun place. On the train I met lots of interesting people (Slovak student of English; Estonian who just quit the Estonian SEC to form his own investment bank, who was shocked that I knew where Estonia is let alone have been there, who learned English at UC Riverside; American guy from North Carolina - while talking we discovered our shared interests in urban exploration and esperanto, imagine that! we may meet up again 'cause he's on his way to st.petersburg; Girl from Singapore who annoyed the other american guy and I by incessantly bringing up the subjects of president bush, september 11, etc, ad nauseum [which is to say, at all]; Polish guy wearing a ``Mission Viejo'' t-shirt -- no joke, his friend's on the swimteam). Now I'm staying with my boss's nephew and being shown around the city by my CERN colleague Pawel who lives here. On Tuesday to Warsawa, on Wednesday to Vilnius, I think. Send me email, I like it.

Comments

[shamster.livejournal.com]

I'm looking to buy a mandolin. They are prevalent in eastern Europe and the mediterranean... and cheaper too! If you find a shop selling one for over $100, and then manage to haggle it to under $100... I'll pay for it & for shipping. Maybe you can COD it?

If not a mandolin, then any neat stringed instrument will do. Don't bother with scitars, they're too huge and fragile :)
Violin would be especially cool too, but I don't know anything about quality on those.

If you're in Ukraine and stop by Lvov... that's where my mom grew up :) And if you're in Poland and find a city that used to be full of jews but doesn't exist anymore because of the germans... that's where my grandpa grew up :) And for god's sake, stop by Rumania some time and eat some yummy cheeses!

Auschwitz

[auressiel.livejournal.com]

If you get a chance, stop by Auschwitz and take one of the guided tours. You can easily get there from Krakow by train and the tours are cheap (~10 USD) and in English. For whatever you've read about or have been told about the Holocaust, nothing can prepare you for what you'll see and hear about there.