Monday, November 7, 2011

Beautiful Krakow, Poland


Krakow, Poland is a beautiful city located on the Western border of Poland near to the Austrian border.  It is an old city rich in history.  It has been a center of commerce and trade for hundreds of years - dating back to the 10th century.  It has also been a city of conflict, seized by multiple countries including Russia and Austria.  Poland regained Krakow for its own after World War I.  The people of Krakow, in particular the Jewish population, were ravaged at the hands of the Nazi Party in World War II, but the city buildings themselves were not terribly damaged. And so, the city has a beautiful Old Town section with a cathedral and many charming buildings with a lot of character.

Ken, Angela and I vacationed here for a week during our fall break.  We stayed at a lovely hotel on the northern most part of Old Town.  Old Town(Stare Miasto) is surrounded by a park called Planty with sidewalks.  The Old Town section at one point had also been surrounded by a brick wall.  Our hotel was just inside the remaining part of the wall and gate.  In the center of the Old Town is the Rynek Glowny (Grand Square) where a central building called Cloth Hall now houses stall after stall of tourist wares and goods.





We spent a lot of time wandering around the streets of Old Town, window shopping and enjoying the different polish foods like breads, kielbasa, kebabs, and hot beer (not my favorite).  Krakow is immensely more western than Kiev and we were able to do some shopping for items we had been unable to find in Kiev.

We played the tourist role most of the week.  The high points of that included tours at Auschwitz and Berkinau, Schindler's Factory, and the Wieliczka Salt Mines.

Auschwitz and Berkinau - perhaps two of the most horrifying places on earth.  Millions of people were slaughtered in these killing camps during the reign of the Nazis in the late 1930s and early 1940s.  I know that genocide continues in countries around the world, and it is tragic that humanity has not yet learned its lesson.  I've included photos below which I will let tell their own stories with only a few comments along the way.  Auschwitz was initially a military camp so there are barrack-looking buildings.  Much larger in size, Berkinau was a purpose built camp - it's purpose to house and murder Jews, gypsies, political and military prisoners.

Auschwitz:
The infamous "Work Makes You Free" sign



Empty cans of the poison used to gas the Jews and other prisoners.

Photos of children in the camp

The execution wall for those who were "secretly" executed by gun.

The crematorium.  At one point they were killing so many people that the crematorium couldn't handle it.  So, they just piled the bodies up outside and burned them all together.


Berkinau is about 3 km away from Auschwitz.  We took a bus transport and continued with our guided tour.  It had started to rain while we were at Auschwitz and the weather became much colder, windier, and wetter as our tour progressed.  Completely fitting.
 In the center of the photo is the "selection" car.  Guests to Berkinau were directed to the left side or right side of the facility.  The right side was a quick trip to the gas chamber and the left the slower route where they worked you to death first.

Prisoners were given 30 seconds to use the toilet twice a day.  These are the toilets.  Since they only received approximately 300 calories of food per day, many suffered from chronic bowel issues.  Can you imagine?

 The Nazis used the architectural plans for horse stalls for the bunk areas for the prisoners.  Note the slanted beds.  Men and women (separate housing) would sleep across the beds up to 10 per level or 30 per bunk bed.


Gas chamber at the back of Berkinau.  There were four such gas chambers and the Nazis blew them up as the Russians entered - to hide the evidence.


 Another example of a bunk.

 The selection car


We got a better picture of Krakow in the 1940s when we visited Schindler's Factory Museum.  Here we learned about the Polish population and the Jews living in Krakow.  If you haven't had a chance to watch Schindler's List, I suggest you do so.
 Ken and John Thompson modeling their new hats in the Jewish Quarter.



 Renamed Town Square

Brainwashed.

We did a few other touristy type things like go to some very cool salt mines, visit the Wawal Castle, and ride in a carriage.
 Angela hanging out with Capernicus at the university he attended in Krakow.

 Our traveling friends - Jenny and John Thompson and Jessica and Keegan (taking the photo) Tosser.  This was a great restaurant - animal furs on the benches and excellent mulled wine.  A relaxing environment that allowed us to reflect on the darker side of humanity after our visit to Auschwitz and Berkinau.

 Krakow architects have had over the years a certain whimsical style.

 Very classic Krakow building/church.

 Salt statues carved by miners.  This particular salt mine, Wieliczka, was active until 8 years ago.  We traveled 165 m underground through a variety of tunnels and chambers.  There were several very large chambers where nowadays people get married, have conferences, and throw Christmas parties.  The miners created these incredible salt carvings as well as wood carvings from wood soaked in salt.  There are even salt chandeliers.







 Our carriage ride

 Cupcake heaven!  I know these types of shops are springing up all over the US, but we didn't expect to find one in Eastern Europe.  Delicious!

 Wawal Castle.


 The interior courtyard area of the castle.  It looks like a small village.


 Outer wall

Our hotel was nice and served an exceptional Polish breakfast each morning.  I looked forward to trying some of the dishes including creamed herring.



We are now back to work.  Only six more weeks until Christmas break!

Next blog:  more about life in Kiev!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

We've Been Busy!

Hello All!

First off, our apologies for being so tardy in getting a new blog out.  We've been really, really busy.  Mostly it is with school stuff, but our social calendar on the weekends is pretty full as well.  The school community is a close-knit, fun-loving group of people who love to get together to share meals, watch movies, go to museums, soccer games, opera, ballet, etc.

Since we last wrote, we have been to a Ukrainian soccer match.  What an experience!  Ukrainian fans take this sport (their football) VERY seriously.  They actually have an entire part of the stadium dedicated to die hard fans who travel to every game.  These fans have coordinated chants and other activities such as lighting flares (yes, flares in the stands - hoses at the ready), holding up signs, and leading call and response songs to the rest of the stadium.  The opposing team fans have to be escorted in and sit in a designated area.  They are just as serious and make just a little less noise than the home team fans.  Drinking is in excess, but there were also many families there and we witnessed family people asking the drunk men (generally) to behave themselves, which they did.  Police were in great force, lining the stadium aisles should mayhem break out.  The game was exciting and both teams had some outstanding players and plays. Kiev is hosting the 2012 EuroCup in July, and the city is really prepping for it.  They have built a new stadium (Olympiska) that opened yesterday.  Ken, Angela and I plan on watching Germany vs. Ukraine there on November 11th.   Angela has taken an interest in soccer and she is on the girls' varsity soccer team.  They are traveling to Bucharest next month for the league finals.  The team has had some struggles, but they are having a great time.

I promised last time that I would write about the food here.  We enjoy most Ukrainian food.  We have been blessed to find a woman to work in our home.  She does a bit of cleaning, all our ironing (yes!), and cooks Ukrainian food for us three days a week.  Her name is Lena and she is a kind and hard-working woman.  She has made us many soups including Borscht, chicken and rice, and a seaweed and egg type of soup that was delicious.  She breads chicken and pork often, and she also cooks a lot of rice with different sauces and generally chicken.  She likes eggplant and squash, and often fixes us vegetable dishes, some of them cold.  The cold ones are often served with mayo, and that takes some getting used to. One dish which was really different was cold eggplant wrapped around parsley and a mayo dressing.  I liked it, but Angela and Ken ate a few bites and were done.  I love Lena's borscht which is rich in cabbage, carrots, and beets.  We serve it hot with a touch of sour cream.  Ukrainian breads are incredible.  Every week we buy a loaf of white and a loaf of dark (for about $1 per loaf).  Nothing here has preservatives in it, so it goes stale quickly, but that's okay because we go through it quickly.  Groceries are cheaper here than in California if you buy local and Ukrainian products. If you need to buy recognizable brands like Nestle or Hinz, you will pay the price for it.  Vegetables and fruits (of which there are plenty) are inexpensive and even cheaper if you buy them from vendors on the streets.  As our understanding and ability to speak in Russian numbers improves, we are venturing more and more out to those outside vendors.

We have been to many restaurants so far.  Those are priced about the same as in the US, perhaps just a bit cheaper.  We have been to traditional Ukrainian restaurants.  One we went to was a buffet style where you got a tray and pointed to the different foods you wanted.  Another was a beautiful restaurant where I ordered eggplant with mushroom sauce. The presentation was beautiful.  Rabbit is a common item on the menu - Ken ordered that once and it was "ok."  We also went to a Lebanese/Ukrainian restaurant dubbed "The Cave" by teachers.  They have the most incredible chicken skewers - Shashlik in Ukrainian.  This chicken is a Ukrainian specialty and it is grilled chicken on a skewer.  In this particularly restaurant the chicken is incredibly moist.  We have also found a great sandwich shop called Aroma.  There are so many places to eat, and generally on Friday night we try to go to a restaurant if we haven't been invited to someone's apartment or house for dinner (and we do that a lot)!

The weather has changed here.  It has been raining since last night and it is quite cool - high 30s.  We were out in it quite a bit today and we got a bit chilled.  We've been told that once this type of rain starts, that's it for summer/fall and here comes winter!  The heat is not on in our apartment yet, but I'm baking some apple crisp tonight, so at least the kitchen is warm.  I can hear the rain beating on the windows as it is pretty blustery outside.

School continues to go well.  Ken and I both love our classes, and we are keeping our heads just above water with the workload.  We have continued our Russian lessons and we progress quite slowly with that, not really having much opportunity to practice except when we go grocery shopping.  I am still coaching cross country.  Our big high school meet is in one month and we have a solid boys and girls teams.  We competed in a 5K fun run to raise money for Children of Chernobyl - and I actually ran in it!  I didn't come in first, but I didn't place last, so all was good. Our two boys that ran took 1st and 2nd place against another local international school.

And, just to show us all how small this world is, this other international school called Pechersk International School also has a cross country coach.  That cross country coach is a man I went to graduate school with in Santa Cruz.  He was in my cohort of 15 other student teachers and we did teacher training together for two years.  This is his second year here in Kiev, and what a blast it was to see him here!  I had no idea!

I'll try not to be so tardy next time, and I promise more pictures - some of the metro and Marshrutkas (the buses we ride) as well as where we grocery shop.  Perhaps I'll be able to get some photos of the wild dog population as well - they can be a bit intimidating at times.

We hope everyone is doing well and we send you all our love!

Kim, Ken and Angela