I am in LOVE...

...with Krakow!!!! I LOVE this place! Honestly, there isn't a single person I know that wouldn't enjoy this city. It is so clean, liberal, inviting, vibrant and energizing (even with the gray skies). The population is under a million, about 20% are college students...so it is considered a college town. And it definitely has that feel. It is actually quite fashionable...I definitely standout as a tourist in my fleece. Krakow is considered the intellectual and cultural center of Poland...and it has proven to be just that.

Being a college town, most people speak English...with a Midwestern accent. So for the linguistically impaired (such as myself), this is the perfect city for you. The restaurants are excellent, with so many to choose from. Dining out is an experience here and people dress for the evening and enjoy themselves. When you consider the quality of the food, drinks, and ambiance, the prices are a steal in comparison to a nice dinner in the States.

Ok, I could go on and on about how I love this place, but I sound like a tour guide. One last plug...my room is soooo amazing. If you are ever fortunate enough to have the chance to visit Krakow, let me know and I will give you the info for my hotel. Also, I will be back, so if you're interested, count me in!

It is a small city, but there is just so much to do here. You could literally spend a week here and not get bored. I started my afternoon with a nice little nap. Then bundled up and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring parts of Old Town...so beautiful. After all of my traveling and walking I realized I was in need of some serious calories.

I had an awesome Italian meal, where I dined in an old underground cavern. So romantic, I enjoyed the candlelit dinner while loving myself :-) There is actually a lot of Italian influence here in the architecture, culture, and food. It just makes me want to visit Italy that much more.

After 12 hours of sleep, I woke up ready to tackle the world. I went for a wonderful breakfast in the cutest cafe, tucked away on a side street. There were antiques and old books as decorations and the walls were lined with letters from the late 1400's through the 1600's.

Then I explored all of Old Town. Krakow was a medevil city at one time and it is so cool to see the remnants. The city itself used to be surrounded by a city wall and a mote (the official city history actually includes a dragon in the story). This mote area was turned into a park that surrounds the entire city. There are so many amazing buildings and churches to see, but the castle is definitely the most intriguing. Since the 1500's, each new King has built added a new chapel to the existing church within the castle grounds. Each addition respected the architecture of the era. I believe there are 15 differnt types architecture on one building.

After my sight seeing I did a little souvenir shopping, then headed to the travel agency. I booked my tour of Auschwiz for tomorrow morning at 9:20am and also booked the night train to Prague tomorrow night at 10:30pm.

I did also stop into a few camera stores in search of a card reader, but they all suggested a store in the burbs. So no pictures yet...I do promise I'm taking them though.

Anyway, after my errands, I stopped for a nice late lunch consisiting of fried sheep cheese and potato pancakes. Very yummy! I washed it down with a couple of beers and I must say, Polish beer is quite good!

After all of that, I am catching up on emails and packing. Heading to bed early as I have an early start tomorrow followed by another night of travel.

This time I am going to save myself the headache and book my room in Prague ahead of time...actually in about 10 minutes from now :-)

Sorry for rambling, but the moral of the story is that I love Krakow; if there are a million spelling errors, my apologies, but I don't have spell check; thank you to everyone for leaving comments...I haven't responded to them, but they really do brighten my day; and thank you to everyone who supported me when I knew this is what I needed to do. I was so right and am so happy to have this opportunity.

All right, I'm logging off. I'll update everyone from Prague!

XOXO,

Jenni