Tuesday, July 15, 2008

A short introduction to Poland

Alright, because I'm exhausted, I'm going to leave a "real" post (i.e. with pictures and stories and stuff) for later today or tomorrow... but never fear. I will entertain you with something right now. 

Being in Poland is oodles of fun. 

Niki and her mom treat me like part of the family. We have good Polish food and we spend hours and hours of the day chatting over tea and biscuits. Niki took me into Krakow yesterday (via the tram) with her cousin and her cousin's friend and showed me a lot of the sights... a castle, a lot of cathedrals and churches, and the largest medieval square in Europe, which now houses a lot of restaurants and stalls where people sell their crafts. The views here are so incredibly different from what I am used to seeing in England. Eastern Europe, I have come to realize, is more different than I thought. 

On Sunday, Niki and her mom took me to a Catholic mass. It was an interesting experience, because I knew what was going on, from the gazillion Catholic masses I attended (and sang at) at school over the last eight years. I knew what people were saying, and I even recognized a song or two... but everything was in Polish. I knew what was going on, but understood nothing. 

Today, I believe that I will be going back into Krakow with Niki to actually visit the castle. Museums are closed on Mondays, and so I am looking forward to going into the castle that I saw yesterday. I believe that Niki's cousin, Carolina, also wanted to go see Prince Caspian in the movies today... so we might go catch that as well. Carolina said that she wanted to see the movie in English (Hallelujah!!) with subtitles in Polish. An excellent decision, in my opinion.

Well, I am going to go and get ready for the day now. Will post with pictures later when I am not so tired! 

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