Day 2: Krakow, Poland

This morning began at 7:00a in Wroclaw. I woke up, showered, repacked, and then traveled to the “bankomat” (ATM), withdrew 100z (PLN) or about the equivalent of $33.33 USD, then grabbed our luggage. We had to make a trip from our hotel to PKP (the train station) where we then waited for our four-hour ride to Krakow (pron. Crackoov; Pope John Paul II was the archbishop here). Once we arrived, we met with a local IMB missionary who had us drop our bigger luggage off with a strange man in a small, unsecure building next to the train station. Hopefully it will be there once we head out on Friday morning.

Ahh! Relief, we have finally made it to Krakow. That means we only have two days left before getting to our actual location on Glogow (pron. Glowgoove).

Once we were checked into our apartment (Emma and I will be sleeping in the kitchen), we went to finally get food. At this point, I have eaten a candy bar, Emma ate a breakfast bar, and we were both extremely hungry (7:00a – 5:00p with no food). I have heard short-term missionaries often lose weight and I hope this is the case!

We had our supper in the Old Town at Pizzeria Dominium. Emma had the primavera pizza (pepperoni, bacon, and onion) and I had the London pizza (eggs, bacon, and ham). They were both delicious (and hot)!

After supper, the rest of the group decided to be a bunch of old men and head back to the apartment. Being the youngsters we are, Emma and I stayed out so much later (about an hour ha ha)! Really taught those old fogies! ;)

At the end of the night, it was time to call it a day. We bought our chocolate bars in the Old Town (Emma had a dried pineapple dipped in chocolate and I had a dark chocolate bar with white and dark chocolate dipped rice crisps). In about an hour and a half, I will be on Skype with Christian Student Fellowship live from here in Krakow.

Culture is much different in Poland. This is my third time visiting Europe and it seems as if each and every city has its own culture; in missiology this is deemed as a people group. Taxis are reserved for long trips (one side of a city to another), trains for even longer ones (one city to another), and planes to get across seas (one continent to another). Most people do not own cars, in other words buy some walking shoes! At the end of the day, no matter how comfortable your shoes are, your feet will hurt. As spoiled Americans, we do nothing on our feet outside of huge metropolitan areas (NYC and DC).

Art is much different as well. Unlike in Kentucky where handmade brooms and soaps are part of the art scene, here you have heads of famous figures that are about the size of dump trucks, architecture older than anything you have ever seen, and fashion much better than anything in Lexington.

While I may seem negative at points, I am really just cutting up with the guys on the trip and making light of what could have been stressful days. I love it here and we are having an awesome time even though we get no refills on our iceless sodas and our food is normally served cold out of the oven!