Kim i Kraków

Enjoying being back in Kraków. :) Forgot how much I really like it here. Yesterday, we had a train ride that was about 3 hours, so it went by very quickly. We checked in to our hotel (it is very close to the Wawel castle; I am sharing a pretty big room with a sitting area, TV, desk, two double beds, and balcony with view of adjacent walkway. Unfortunately I now smell a weird smell... so my only issue may be my bed. :-P There is also a very awkward "maze" to make it to the rooms and there is construction going on inside the hotel.) Yesterday, we had an Italian dinner at Da Pietro: http://www.dapietro.pl/ I had fish soup, a salad with capers, smoked salmon, hard-boiled eggs, olives, lettuce, and tomatoes, and a dessert of ice cream, strawberry sauce, fruit, and whipped cream (that I tried to skip around :-/ ).

After dinner, I walked around the rynek here (including taking photos or looking at stages, and several other displays and decorations for Constitution day on May 3 and for Pope Jan Pawel's II beatification; a lot of people and celebration here in the city for the long weekend and Pope): some streets, the Sukiennice, and area between the Old Town and the hotel. I went back to my room when the sun went down and hung around my room and other people's rooms before we went out for a bit (dancing and such). Now I am resting before going to breakfast and our first tour session of Collegium Maius (never been), back to the Sukiennice and Main Square (LOVE), and a couple of churches (also never been inside). Later on we have dinner at (I believe) a Polish restaurant named Wesele: http://www.weselerestauracja.pl/

Tomorrow is Wieliczka salt mine. I also started taking pictures yesterday and will take more today, to be added soon to probably Photobucket. :-D Weather is much cooler than what I experienced last week... but still not bad as we welcome MAY. We have a map and a guide to the city, plus free time to go with the scheduled tours. I also have some homework to do: readings for literature class, a couple of final papers to begin (since those are the two with set topics and due dates; any others I lack enough information to work on), possibly watching a movie for a class, and some Polish book and workbook exercises. I know that I have been doing at least some practice and studying of the Polish language in the last week, in preparation for the exam the final week of classes. :-P