No news is good news :)
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Been busy.

Last week I went with Rich to Krakow to visit our friends, Jim and Ewa. They just had a baby. Their first. She's about a month old and all she did the first 2 days we were there was scream! Luckily, the first 2 days we stayed with Ewa's mother in her house just outside of Krakow. WE slept peacefully :) The 3rd night we stayed with them and I guess Sofia was so exhausted from the previous rampage that she slept all night long. Ahhh. Lucky us.

We went to the famous salt mines. It was interesting, but not cheap. 60 zloty for the English tour! As I said, the tour through the mines is nice, but, just before you step into the highlite, the one place you've been waiting for - the Cathedral - you are told you need to pay another 10 z's if you want to take pictures. Rich and I decided to buy a postcard. However, as we entered the cathedral, carved entirely out of salt, we noticed that almost everyone in our large group was snapping pictures. Only about 5 people had actually paid to. So, we joined in. I'm really glad we didn't pay! As you can see, it was so dark down there none of the pictures really turned out!

On our way out of the mine we met a really nice American girl. We think she was a little lonely because she was backpacking around Poland with a friend who had completely different interests, so she was being dragged to museum after museum. While her friend had gone on to see the mining machinery museum, she had decided (as Rich and I) to skip it and go get lunch. We took her to a very traditional Polish restaurant and just chatted. That's one thing I love about traveling and being an expat - you meet so many people!

We also visited Wawel Castle. Really nice, especially because you don't have to take a tour! You can choose the parts of the castle you're interested in and take as much or as little time as you want. Only one bit of caution: The Garden Tour. Yes, this was one tour, and it was MY decision to try it. I thought it would be a real treat to see some royal gardens. There was one garden. I don't know if I got a pic, but it was small. Our tour guide made a good point though - gardens of that time were more for practical purposes than decorative, because there was so little green area inside of a castle. Castles are built for fortification, no beautification. :) Unfortunately, that was the ONLY GARDEN ON THE TOUR! After that we were told about the gardens that were once situated here or there, but since the Austrians came, they bricked over them. There are no plans to reconstruct these gardens. So, there you go.

Over all, it was a great trip. We had great weather and I love Krakow. The only thing I regret is that we didn't stay until Sunday. A lady on the train home told us that on Sunday would be the annual "sausage dog parade"!!! Imagine hundreds of little wiener dogs trotting down the streets in costumes, their masters matching!!!

Oh well, next year for sure!

http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m154/pigeonspikes/Krakow%202006/?start=0
More pics of Wawel: http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/wawel&page=all