Krakow, eventually

Well, we encountered our first official Travel Inconvenience this morning. After rising at 5 am to make it to our 7:55 am flight to Vienna, we arrived without incident to catch our connection to Krakow. Instead, we saw this on the departure screen:


Cancelled? Why? Where do we go? When's the next flight? You can imagine. We were able to figure out where to ask someone, and a kind woman at Austrian Airlines rebooked us for a 1:30 pm flight. Phew. We even got a voucher for lunch!

We found a familiar "face",


and then Erin I. did this:


while I did this: (this picture is dedicated to Gail G., who made it possible...)


Waiting was fine, actually. We chatted, watched other travelers (a favorite activity for both of us), and eventually made our way down to get our free, extremely carbo-laden lunch:


Finally we boarded a tiny propeller plane and made it to Krakow without further excitement. Our luggage made it too, which was a relief. Once we found our hotel, we went straight back out while we still had momentum...and walked directly into a Polish version of a Renaissance Faire. Right on the main square in the center of old town, there were arts and crafts booths, traditional Polish dancing and music, and lots of food.

medieval torture chamber!

The sky was ominous, but we walked all around, shopped (apparently amber jewelry and potter are the Polish souvenirs to get), and of course got hungry for some traditional Polish food from the fair:

Erin I.'s dinner: Bacon-wrapped chicken and pork, potatoes. (I had to ask her again just now what was on that stick and she told me and said "mmm, bacon tastes good")

My dinner - kielbasa and potatoes.

Dessert was from a waffle stand nearby. I had mine with cherry jam but Erin I. got the works:


We walked around a bit more, loosely following Rick Steves' self-guided walking tour. Krakow reminds me of Prague - lots of interesting and beautiful details wherever you look.


We stopped into a large church where 7:00 mass had just started. I've been in lots of churches in lots of places...beautiful old churches in various European countries, but I've never seen a mass so well-attended. The place was packed out. This particular church happened to be right across from Pope John Paul II's residence when he was in his hometown. He used to stand in the window and talk to the people, and when he was dying (in Rome) 10,000 people crowded this street to wait for news.


We had a few more stops on the walking tour, but suddenly we felt rain sprinkles, and then more than just sprinkles, and then, well, we just started laughing because even though we were hurrying home as fast as we could there was no way that we weren't going to get soaked. At least we could laugh about it. I suppose that could be the theme for the day.