Polish Sweets

I wanted to bring back some candy from our trip to share with my coworkers, as it is a tradition when anyone on the floor goes on a trip (and many do quite often as most are from other countries) to bring something back to share. Basia was nice enough to pick up some traditional candy when she went to the food market during our stay. I was able to find the web site of one of the candy makers: http://www.krowka.zywiec.pl/en_oferta.php Their Cream Fudge is yumo.

Hail Polska!

Today was a hot day in Bochnia, and many storm clouds passed over during the day with periods of thunder. At about 5:15pm it looked like it was finally going to dump, but what came down was hail, in huge pieces. This video and these photos do not quite capture it, I started the video when it was winding down, but I certainly would not want to be outside when this stuff is coming down. Apparently this i not THAT rare in this part of the world...crazy.

Bochnia, Poland

Today is certainly the hottest day of our trip, 31C/88F. We originally thought of visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp, but it is located about 2.5 hours away in Oswiecim, Poland. Courtney has already been, and I am really touristed out. We decided to just enjoy our final day in Bochnia. We strolled through town, visited a Polish cemetary, and also the oldest preserved Jewish cemetary. The history of this area is amazing, but of course mixed with the horrific past of the holocaust.

Yesterday we visited the Bochnia Salt Mine, which is most of what this town sits atop. We were about 250m (820 ft) below the surface. At one point Salt was more valuable than Gold, and the mining of Salt took lives. There is a chapel in the mines, which a small train track (to get around in the mines) goes through, which is pretty cool.

After the Mine tour, we plopped down at a Beer Garden in the town center, and listened to some local bands and also there was a mix of music, dancing, and a fashion show. We also noshed on some Keilbasa which was awesome. We also came accross some local Gypsies, pretty bizzare folks. They were reading peoples fortunes with a piece of thier hair, and just trying to peddle and get money (and dude..they stunk).

Another cool discovery in Poland was thier pretzels, which is kind of a mix of pretzel and bagel. In fact this is the origin of the Bagel as we know it in NY.

Tonight we are spending our last night having dinner with Erin, John and Basia at a local Polish restaurant right here in Bochnia, which we are really looking forward to. It has been a fantastic trip, and the opportunity to spend time with Courtney's family has been terrific.

Poland

Our train to Krakow, Poland was delayed due to a late arrival in Katowice. This did not end up being too bad, got in about 45 minutes late, but Courtney's brother John was at the station in Krakow to meet us. The trains in Poland seem a little older (run down) and not as on schedule as in Austria and Switzerland. Another challenge was that the conductors on the trains in Poland did not know any English. So it made things a little more challenging, but it all worked out. Luckily the train, once in Poland did not have many people on it. When we got in, we got a taxi and stuffed our large suitcases into it.

We then stayed at a beautiful luxury apartment of one of John's friends. We spent last night in Krakow, had dinner in the Old Town and hit a local bar. The local beer, Tyskie, is awesome. The next morning we headed back to the Krakow train station to meet up with Erin that just arrived from NY, then we all took a train to Bochnia. We are staying at John and Basias beautiful home here, and I even got my own pair of traditional Polish slippers (although they are a bit snug ;)). We had a traditional bean and keilbasa (in a spicy tomato broth) lunch, and then relaxed a bit and took the kids to the playground.



It is nice to be staying in a home and relaxing after all of our travelling and hotel stays. Tonight we will have a good Polish dinner and probably put down a little Vodka. Also it is great to finally to some laundry! The language is hard to understand here, but we are picking up a few phrases.

News Alert: Prague is no longer cheap!

Guess it's a combination of the crappy USD and increases in prices, but Praha is not the Eden of bargains it used to be. We had a great time though, and our accommodations are nice and reasonable. We are staying at the Aparthotel City 5 and the staff here is great. We started our first day with a stroll across the Charles Bridge into Old Town, and grabbed dinner at Navomestsky Pivovar, as recommended by my friend Steve. This is a brewery/restaurant, which was excellent and had reasonable prices. I had the dark beer goulash with horseradish, spicy sausage and bread dumplings, I of course had their house dark beer to keep it company...good stuff. (And who would pass up a dish with 'spicy sausage'? Not I).

We then caught an alternative theater show at the Black Light Theater. It was a trippy show about Alice (in Wonderland) as she goes through her adult life. Very wacky, but I did get to see her 'you know whats' so that made it worthwhile, love Prague ;)

Our second day we started with a tour of Prague Castle, oh after a stop at Starbucks (I needed a fix of the coffee I love and am used to), we did complement it with some apple strudel though. Other than there being a lot of grinds at the bottom of the coffee, it was damn good. So back to Prague Castle, we decided to pay the extra Crowns to do the audio tour, which was definitely a good idea. The St Vitus Cathedral is amazing, so beautiful. The rest of the castle is pretty cool (not as cool as the one in Salzburg). We then headed back to Old Town to check out the open market and ended the day with (drum roll please) a Mexican Dinner (I know..getting Mexican in Czech is nutty..and should be done only at your own risk). There is a place accross from our hotel called Hombre (how can we not go there). As expected, it was no Don Juan, but we were able to get a decent enough light inexpensive dinner. It seems people drink bottled water here in Czech more than in Switzerland and Austria, I am assuming the tap water is not as good (which makes sense based on mountain / river location).

We enjoyed Prague, there are certainly A LOT of tourists here, but luckily much less soccer frenzy. We have a long train ride (about 8 hours) ahead of us tomorrow morning from here to Krakow, Poland. I am looking forward to being in a less touristy location, and we will be there for 4 days...so it will be good to wind down a bit, also we are staying with family..so that will be nice. Off to bed...(I almost bought the 'Czech Me Out' t-shirt ;)).

Vienna to Prague

Luckily we are seated in a cabin on the 4.5 hr train from Vienna to Prague which has an electrical outlet, so I can squeeze in a blog post. We are excited to get to Prague, we are staying at an Aparthotel (more of an extended stay type of place, like a short term apartment). The hotel Allegro in Vienna was a pretty run down place, and the rates were really high due to the soccer. But, it was the first place where we got scrambled eggs for breakfast, so that was a bonus. There was also a scare, as a newly checked in guest thought his laptops were stolen, and the cops were there and the hotel manager was completely stressed out...going through cigarettes like nobodies business. It turned out that his wife had hid the laptops under the sheets of the bed...ugh. In any event, we are looking forward to a cheaper city, it is approximately 16 Czech Crowns per 1 USD, nice to get away from the Euro :)

We both packed pretty big bags, and can get by without doing any laundry, but if the opportunity comes up to do some laundry, I will be jumping on it. We are getting some really nice weather, aside from some of the rainy times in the beginning off the trip (which we got through ok), it has been mild and sunny...sweet. We also have a bunch of recommendations on places to see and eat in Prague from friends that have been or lived there. We were also warned to be careful of pickpockets in Prague (if you don't see any more blog posts for a while, maybe MY laptop was stolen ;)).

As I mentioned in my last post, we got around in Vienna primarily by taking trams and subways (underground). Living in/near NYC, we were accustomed to getting around in this fashion, and found the mass transit system relatively easy to navigate. I cannot believe this is already day 12 of 18, the trip is going fast, but we are really enjoying it. We both feel like we saw plenty of Switzerland and Austria.

Strudel Dudel

We started the day with a visit to the Spanish Riding School, to attend the morning training session. Seeing the White Stallions being trotted around the course in preparation for their larger shows (which need to be booked months in advance) was quite a treat. We then went on to finish the city walking tour that we had to interrupt yesterday afternoon due to the soccer fans. We strolled through the enormous Museum area, and by Burggarten.

Since we had already sampled the famous Sacher Torte and Melange (Viennese Coffee), it was on to Apple Strudel (originally brought to Vienna by the Turkish..along with Coffee). We trekked back to Schonbrunn Palace where an Apple Strudel cooking demonstration and  sampling was being offered for 3,90 Euros. This was a real treat, we also got the recipe for this amazing Strudel. When the host (Dorothea) asked for a volunteer to assist here, you know who's hand shot up first (beat out all the little kids)! I was able to assist in the cooking process, and get a certification for cooking Strudel...so what's up!?

After this we headed back to the Naschmarkt (an outdoor market and restaurant pavilion)  to browse some of the vendors goods'. We wrapped up the day with...HAMBURGERS! (Aren't they from Germany or Austria?). After sampling all this Austrian food, we were craving a good old Hamburger and Fries, we ate at an Australian  Restaurant. We ended the day with a stroll through the Innerstradt area with all the street performers and shops and Gelatterias!

Vienna was the biggest city like area in Austria we visited, we took mass transit all over (as opposed to some transit and lots of walking in other areas, since they were not as sprawling). Luckily we bought Vienna Cards, which gave us 72 hours of unlimited Metro travel. In the morning we head to Prague. We have enjoyed Austria, but we are looking forward to getting away from the soccer fans, and onto a new country!