Poland--The Ultra Conservative Catholic Country

...Or so I thought! Upon arriving in Krakow after our 10 hour bus ride, we started our afternoon off by going as a group to Wawel castle. On our way, as we perused through the central square in the center of Krakow, we were all astonished with the attire of the people! Prague tends to dress rather conservatively and causally, whereas Krakow citizens tend to wear mini skirts, high heels with short dresses, and very vibrant clothing with heels to match! Even as we walked around the Wawel castle on the outskirts of town, we saw many, many women dressed in skirts as short, if not shorter than, what you would see at a Frat party...Again, for such a Catholic country, this came as an absolute shock. Wawel castle, however, was not what I had expected at all after seeing the Shoeppburn Palace in Vienna. Rather than a single palace, this castle was actually a Catholic community of gorgeous churches, atop a hill, surrounded by gardens and multiple "castle" buildings. Within the walls of the larger church that we toured on the castle grounds, were tombs of many prominent monarchical figures of Polish history, Kings and Queens included. Additionally, the President of Poland who died in a plane crash two years ago along with several other important government officials, had a tomb in commemoration for his sudden and tragic death. It had hundreds of live roses on it and was really quite beautiful and moving.








That night we were on our own for dinner, and a group of us decided to go to one of the many famous "Milk Bars" in town which are essentially places where you can get large portions of self-serve style meals that are incredibly cheap. My meal was absolutely fantastic and was only 22 Zlotys (about 8 US dollars)! I got a traditional polish dish with beets, sauteed carrots and peas, and chicken with some kind of mushroom sauce.

The night life 'vibe' in Poland was incredibly relaxed compared to in Prague and Vienna. It was great, though, because our Professors invited us all to the Jewish quarter to grab a beer, and we ended up staying as a group the entire night, drinking the night away, being social, bonding with our Professors, etc. To top off the evening, every one of us got these AMAZING baguette pizzas that were nearly a foot and a half long, topped with Feta cheese, salami, olives, tomatoes, bell peppers----and ketchup. I was in loveee because I feel like I had not had salt in forever, but thanks to the 3/4 cup of ketchup that was dumped on that pizza, I think I have cured my craving ;)

The second day (Sunday), we started our day around 10 AM by going to the Rynek Underground Musem. Apparently it just opened over the summer of 2011, so it was cool being the first group with this program to experience it. Essentially what it is is a tour of medieval Poland in the 12th-15th centuries, depicting how Poles lived and how they were a center point for trade and commerce between the Baltic Sea. They had collected all kinds of artifacts and remnants from digging from 2005-2010 in the middle of the central square. My favorite part was seeing some of the jewelry made of copper, amber, or silver that were engraved with inscriptions and designs that were meticulous and amazing! The funniest part? Being told that redheads were evil in the medieval ages and that once I died (had I been living in the 13th century) they would have chopped off my head before burying me so as not to upset the area with evilness..... Odd.... My least favorite part though had to be the smell. In the medieval ages people essentially lived in dirt-and being underground, surrounded by dirt and the smell of musty dirt was a little more than I could handle after 2 hours on our tour. Nonetheless it was a neat experience.

 In the afternoon, we had a 4 hour bike tour planned from 130 - 530, followed by a group dinner at 630. I must say, this was definitely one of my favorite experiences of the trip. Just imagine 27 bicycles (including our guide and professors) cruising through the crowded streets of Krakow, ringing our bells and spreading in a 200 foot line of bikes. We stopped continuously throughout the city near places including a fire-breathing dragon statue, a Jewish ghetto, along the river, numerous churches and synagogues, the Pope's window where John Paul II used to give prayer services, and even to the top of a steep hill/look out point (definitely the HARDEST part of the entire ride). Luckily, the weather was consistently nice all day until about 5 o clock when it started drizzling, but even then we had worked up a sweat and were in need of a little refresher. Our guide on this tour was fantastic, and we were able to explore so many more things than we would have been able to on foot-we stopped at at least 12 different places all over the city!

Our group dinner was at a surprise restaurant that we were all led to, that our professors had already chosen and ordered our meals at. They brought out tons of red and white wine for us, and then these huge platters full of meat - lamb, duck, pork, chicken, turkey - and potatoes and beets and cabbage salad came out! The food was delicious. We ate like kings, needless to say :)

The next day we had an early morning conference at a local Polish NGO (Non Governmental Organization) that advocates for women's rights and health, i.e. abortion rights. We mainly talked about abortion in the Catholic-influenced country of Poland, and how it has greatly affected women all over the country. In 1993 and before, when abortion was legal and took place legally, there were 200,000 abortions per year. Now in 2012, abortions are legal, but doctors rarely perform them for fear of stigmatization and unpopularity within their church and neighborhoods and in their career, and there are now only 129 abortions recorded yearly that are performed safely and legally! The rest have to undergo illegal abortions or go to surrounding countries that allow and perform abortions. It was really interesting to hear about just how influential the church can be, and how hard it is to avoid those conflicts.

Then came our communist tour of the communist-made city of Nova Huta. First of all, this all took place on a bus that took us to destinations in Nova Huta--a 1963 bright red "cucumber" shaped bus as our guides said, or as they also said... "c*ck" bus..... that definitely set the tone of the rest of the trip. It was the loudest, bumpiest bus, and it was honestly so much fun to ride in! Especially with 24 other college students. Although it was a very informational tour, and we learned alot about the Leninized Steelworker town of Nova Huta both before, during, and after communism, it was still clear that this was meant to be really fun. The first stop on the tour was a restaurant where Stalin and Lenin had dined. We pulled up and our guide said "okay who wants vodka and who wants beer?" thinking he was kidding, we laughed it off until he said "no, really, we're in Poland now, this is what the communists did, and this is a communist tour!". So, here we were at a huge table with our beers and vodkas (and sodas, they didnt FORCE us, but of course I did not pass up a free drink or two...), and the guide tells us all kinds of stories about Nova Huta, his parents' lives in Nova Huta, and all kinds of information about Lenin and the peoples' hatred towards him and, in particular, their hatred towards his statue that was in one of the central squares of the town. Then, we walked outside and saw a hot pink leopard car the size of a mini cooper and all stopped to take pictures of it, when all of a sudden the guides said we would all get a chance to ride in one! They were "Travants" the ultimate car of communism, made practically of plastic, with a mere 25 horse power! So they ended up having two Travants and drove three of us at a time in each car between our stops. It was so much fun! Just like a little go cart! And our drivers were crazy fun! Our third stop was to an apartment where we could see how a family in communist times lived. Back when the town was built, these apartments were built with the intension of giving them out to Steelworkers as an incentive to move to this Utopia and join the party. While at the apartment, they passed out several shots of vodka followed by sweet pickles! Ak! It was surprisingly a good chaser, but after the third shot (which I took with my professor, saying "Nazdrovia") the pickles stopped tasting as good.

The bus took us to a few more stops including a preserved tank that we took a group picture on, and a church that was shaped like Noah's ark. Our final destination was another group dinner. This restaurant, Mia Melina, was awarded a Michellin Award, which is apparently an award recognizing the restaurant as one of the top places to eat in all of Europe! And we had 26 people going! My meal was absolutely incredible--consisting of 'Mazeria' - cucumbers in vinegar with sour cream and dill on tops, and a traditional entree of cabbage wrapped meat and rice in a vegetable cream soup. It was TO DIE FOR. And of course, a tiramisu, and some glasses of vino. We had 100 Zlotys to spend, so our money stretched pretty far, and with all that food, I was feeling pretty full and ready for a good nights' sleep!

This is where our trip ended, and then it was back to reality the next day...if you can even call what we experienced reality. We were heading to Aushwitz on our way back to Prague, and we all knew what emotional roller coaster we were all in for.

I will absolutely blog about it, but it was really a lot to take in, and therefore it might take me a couple of days to figure out what experiences to share, and how to share them. So, tata for now! I am headed out for a roommate cocktail with the girls :)