Wienertrip 2k9: Day three

Now, the long-awaited conclusion to Jonathan and my trip to Vienna!

Sunday was less exciting than Friday and Saturday, so you haven't been missing much. We overslept and missed mass with the Vienna boys choir, but did manage to get standing room tickets to see the Lipizzaner Stallions at the Spanish Riding School, which is part of the Hofburg Palace. No pictures allowed, but I snuck a few as evidence:

As the venue emptied afterward, I took another. A very pretty interior for a horse show:

I'd say that the show must be great for people who love and appreciate horses. For those who are allergic and have kept their distance from the animals (me), it's not the best choice. It was still a good experience, despite the 3 packs of tissues I went through.

Afterward we walked around Vienna and got some of the famed Wiener schnitzel; some sort of meat (veal?) cut very thin and then breaded. Fantastic? Not really. But good enough for me to eat, which is more than I can say for a lot of foreign food.


As you can guess from the size, I wasn't able to eat the whole thing. I'm pretty sure Jonathan rose to the challenge, though.

After a little more aimless wandering around the city, it was time to go to the airport and head back to Krakow. As wonderful as Vienna was, it was nice to get back to Poland, where the exchange rate means dividing, not multiplying.

Something I never thought I'd do again...

is own a pair of rollerblades*.

Seeing that the rollerblading fad is in full swing here in Poland, and knowing that I do not enjoy running without purpose, Jonathan bought me a pair of rollerblades so that I may accompany him on his mile+ runs in the park. Little did he know that I am probably more speedy and more coordinated on bare feet. But I tried:


And if I weren't so afraid of losing control and running head-on into a Polish child without knowing the words for "Look out" or "Help me," maybe I could even get good enough to go on those mile+ loops around the park. Will the U.S. grant me a more comfortable practice environment? We shall see...

*This post brought to you by the "I have no idea how to condense the trip to Vienna into one blog post yet but feel guilty about not updating at all" foundation.

O Jamników: March of the Dachshunds 2009

Imagine my excitement when I learned that, every year in the beginning of September, Krakow hosts the Marsz Jamników-- in English, March of the Dachshunds. For those not from my Pennsylvania life, my family has always had dachshunds and only dachshunds (that is, until the recent addition of Milo). They are my mom's breed of choice, so for my whole life we've always had a short-hair miniature dachshund (or two) roaming around the house.

This past Sunday was Krakow's annual March of the Dachshunds. Jonathan and I had no idea what to expect. What it was: over 200 dachshunds, many of them in costume, parading one block (from the Barbican to the Rynek down Florianska Street) with their owners and various dachshund fans, led by a marching band. After this there was some sort of ceremony, where the best-dressed dachshunds were introduced, dachshund poetry was read dramatically (all in Polish, unfortunately), and children presented their dachshund-inspired art.

As you'd expect, I took about a million pictures. I'm torn about what to put up. Some readers would be content with a few representative pictures, while others, I'm sure, would love to see all the dachshunds I managed to capture in their full hilarity. As a compromise, I've put a few pictures and a video here, and I've created a facebook album with the set in its entirety. Enjoy!

Dachshund owners and enthusiasts gathering by the Barbican on parade morning:

Many dachshunds were in costume:

Some dogs were not so happy about it:

While others took the opportunity to make new friends:

An excerpt of the parade:

At the ending ceremony, as incomprehensible Polish words washed over us, at one point the audience was instructed to raise up their jamniki (dachshunds)... and they did:

Even Jonathan, who is not a great lover of dachshunds (or small dogs in general), found this event preposterously entertaining.

Remember to click here for more pictures!

Kościuszko Mound

At the suburban edge of Krakow and walking distance from Jonathan's dorm, there is a former royal hunting grounds that has been turned into a park. Within the park are several memorial mounds (not burial mounds); last weekend (not this past weekend), we went on a walk through the park and ended up at Kościuszko Mound. Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Kościuszko was involved in the American Revolutionary War and also a Polish revolutionary. There are memorials of him all over the US, too, from Boston Common to Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Anyway, this was yet another beautiful day in Krakow, so I took a lot of pictures. Enjoy!

The path through the park:

A view from the park bench where we had bread and cheese:

From the base of the mound:

 

Krakow from the top of the mound:

Jonathan, with the Tatras far in the distance:

 

An attempt at taking a picture with the view of the city behind us:

 

More posts to come.

Poland, week one: Friday in the park

So, I've been here for a week, and haven't exactly fulfilled my promises of keeping you all updated. My sleep schedule is entirely out of whack thanks to jet lag, morning naps, afternoon naps, and unregulated amounts of caffeine. My first 24 hours or so in Krakow are mostly a blur; after a sleepless 7-hour flight to Frankfurt and a very painful 9 hours waiting in the Frankfurt airport (only afterward did I remember one of my Fulbright friends lives just outside the city), I reached Krakow in a tired and miserable state. But now, a week later, I am very awake, and very happy to be here!

So, let's see. Jonathan and I haven't been up to much in terms of tourism. I hit all the major tourist spots on my trip here in the winter, so this has been a relaxed visit more like the everyday Krakow experience.

I got in Thursday night and I'm pretty sure I slept straight to Friday afternoon. Friday evening, after Jonathan got back from lab, we went to a very large local park. Jon ran a few miles around the park while I sat, took pictures, and read a book. The place was incredibly beautiful at this time of day, though the lighting wasn't captured as nicely through the camera.

I sat on a wall at one edge of the park:

To my right were houses and a creek:

Others sat on the wall as well, enjoying the fantastic late August weather:

Jon ran around the path, as did many other runners, joggers, bikers (cyclists?), and, to my surprise, rollerbladers:

Though the park is close to Jon's dorm and not in the downtown area, it is so large and flat that there's a great view of Wawel castle in the distance:

So, I came to the conclusion that though I loved Krakow when it was covered in snow, it is a very nice place to be at this time of year.

More posts to come. Also, we've altered our travel plans for cost/time reasons (and I want to spend more weekend time in Krakow); instead of Prague and Budapest, we're staying in the area this weekend, and we found very cheap flights to Vienna on LOT for September 10-13. If you have any Viennese (?) travel tips, please let me know!

Updates to come: More Taiwan, and some Poland too!

I promise.

I haven't forgotten this blog, or all of you who may read it. Every few days I get a reminder that I haven't updated in a while, but when your sole source of computing is a 7" constantly-overheating-in-the-summer laptop (with no pictures on its 8GB hard drive), it's hard to get motivated to type more than a few sentences.

Anyway, from August 26-September 23 I will be embarking on Katie's Polish Adventure (take two). Armed with my external hard drive and Jonathan's powerful self-built PC (and being left to my own devices during working hours), I will hopefully finally find the time and energy for updates. So in addition to my wrapping up writing on Taiwan, you can also expect more posts on Krakow, and possibly a little on Budapest and Prague (our tentative weekend plans).

Until my triumphant return to the blogosphere, feel free to leave your input on any or all of the following:

• What I should do/where I should go in Krakow, Poland, Prague, Budapest, and the general areas;
• What you'd like to hear more about from my experiences in Taiwan;
• Whether I should continue this blog (or start a new one, or give up on blogging) once I hit the world of full-time employment;
  
• Any books you think I should read, as I've suddenly started reading again, a lot, and will need reading for my trip; and/or
  
• What you think of Project Runway's transition from Bravo to Lifetime.

Until we meet again!

Extra(-)Krakow Adventures

Jonathan and I had two big adventures outside of the city of Krakow. If you watched my school Powerpoint, you've already gotten a preview.

First, we went to Wieliczka Salt Mine, about 30 minutes (on a very, very crowded public bus) outside of the city. The salt mine is one of the biggest tourist attractions Krakow has to offer, or so say all the travel guides and websites, so we figured we better go. Having never been on a mine tour in recent memory, and having never been to a salt mine ever, it was an interesting experience, and most of the other members of the English tour agreed. I paid the 10 zlotys (3 USD) to take pictures (I'm an educator, after all!), so here are the pictures from this very old, very touristy salt mine.

Note that everything in these pictures that's not made of wood or water is made of salt.

Nicolas Copernicus... made of salt! By salt miners!

A chandelier... made of salt!

A Catholic church... made of salt!

General mine picture. (Not entirely made of salt.)

The salt mine was really cool to see, and our tour guide had awesomely dry humor. Of course, it's the kind of place I'd love to wander and get lost on my own, but with 300km of tunnels, I'm quite sure I wouldn't have found my way out.

Trip Two: Zakopane

After a recommendation from a friend (thanks Carissa!), Jonathan and I spent a day in Zakopane, a little mountain town about two hours by (a less crowded but more teenagery) bus from Krakow. Because Jon's lack of health insurance did not go well with his snowboarding abilities, we didn't try to go skiing and just opted for sight-seeing. It's a good thing we weren't going to ski, because we went on an unusually warm (50 degrees Fahrenheit) day, and half the mountain was melting.

So we took a ride on the train/gondola/whatever-it-was up a mountain and took in the sights:


We also walked around the town for quite a bit, watching vendors trying to entertain and sell to anyone and everyone that passed. We even tried some of the local mountain cheese, but I think we picked the wrong kind, because it just ended up tasting like ham.


After the sun set and Jonathan and I had finished his birthday pizza and apple pie, we got on a very long, winding train back to Krakow (how the train takes twice as long as a bus, I will never understand).

And with that, I think, the blogging of my winter vacation to Krakow (nearly a month ago) has come to an end. Hope you enjoyed it!

Poland for beginners... who read Chinese

I spent most of my classes this week teaching about Poland via this Powerpoint slideshow. So, as promised, here it is for all of you. The hover-over thing won't work in Slideshare, though, so for the few Chinese words that aren't translated, just use your imagination?

Note: The video in the slideshow was a poor-quality one I'd taken on my phone that ended up being inaudible; in its place I would play this video over the speakers.

Katie In Poland