krakow, day 2 (plus the vegetable store joke, sort of explained)

The concert last night was definitely worth it. Imagine a dimly lit, ornately decorated Catholic cathedral with stone walls and floors, with classical music being played by a phenomenally talented chamber orchestra. It was one of those evenings I want to remember for a long time.

At the concert, I also met an undergrad in mechanical engineering from U-M who just arrived to study Polish. Her mother and a family friend were there with her, and I hope I was able to help her mom feel better about leaving her in a foreign country for a month, telling a bit about my own life as an example of "yes, she'll be okay...I had a great time and learned a lot".

This morning, I slept in a bit, found an excellent English-language bookstore (I bought two books, at least one of which will be a gift for a certain reader of this blog with the initials RJM), and hung out in the Planty, which is one of my favorite places in Krakow. It's a narrow strip of park with lots of trees and benches that goes all the way around Stare Miesto, or the old part of Krakow. I sat on a bench, people-watched, and started reading one of the books I bought.

At noon, I met up with Jes and her friend Helia, who's from Wales and knew Jes from a year she'd done at Berkley in undergrad. We decided to go to the Wielickza Salt Mine, and although it hadn't been something I was planning on seeing, it was definitely worth it. It was amazing, especially when you realized that almost everything was made out of salt, even the walls and floors. As a nice touch, it was also in the upper 50s temperature-wise, which as it was in the mid-to-upper 80s (I think) above ground, was very nice.

Once we got back to Krakow, we went out to a restaurant with traditional Polish food that Jes knew. Jes got soup; Helia got bigos, which is a traditional dish of pork and sauerkraut; and I got pierogi with a meat filling. Good food, and we were all stuffed by the time we finished, as we got healthy Polish-peasant-farmer-sized portions! After that, we wandered around a bit and stopped at a cafe for coffee and milkshakes. Then I came back to the hostel, and am now writing this for all of you.

~*~~

The joke from an earlier post explained, for those people who don't get it (don't feel bad, it's a cultural thing). It helps to know that a) post-Soviet salespeople are not known for being overly polite, b) at places such as train stations here, you can pay a small amount of money to get your questions about schedules, prices, etc. answered at the information bureau, and c) during the 1990s, often stores would be out of various things, even when it would seem like they would have them. All of those factors play into making the joke humorous, and I'm not sure how to explain it beyond that. I found it utterly hilarious while Vanessa got it but didn't find it funny, and based on your responses, I think it's a really cultural joke, as Tif was the only person to say she got it and she lived in Ukraine.