Krakow - Arrival and Day 1

This weekend was a whirlwind! My roommate, Emily, and I departed for our first European adventure (other than Ireland), and we had a fun-filled 3 days!

Arrival:
Our flight to Krakow departed from Dublin so we had to take a bus to Dublin, which was about 3 hours long. I read on the bus. When we got to the airport we had plenty of time so wandered around a bit and had dinner - a very unimpressive Burger King burger, with bacon. We then boarded our Ryanair flight and headed to Poland. Ryanair is a discount airline that is known for cheap flights and making their money with fees. I had no problem with them - our flight left on time, everyone was friendly. The only thing is their color scheme which is blue and yellow. I've got to say, the seat (pictured below) is not the most attractive view for three full hours... I sat next to an older Polish man who didn't speak any English and a younger Polish man who spoke a bit of English. I didn't really speak with either, ordered a ham and cheese croissant, and watched Mamma Mia on my phone for the majority of the trip.

When we got to the airport in Krakow, it was nearly midnight. We walked down stairs onto the tarmac and boarded these buses that shuttled us to the security area. Most of the signs were in Polish so Emily and I joined what we thought was the "All Passports" line. When we were up, Emily proceeded through with no problem. The guard stamped her passport and she went on her jolly way. I, of course, was next and went up smiling to the stern-looking man. He took my passport and in a very loud tone and with strong Polish accent said to me and the entire line of people, "this is the line for EU passports. (To me) You do not have a EU passport and are in the wrong line. (To everyone else) If you do not have an EU passport get out of this line now!" ...he looked at me, I said, "sorry," he stamped my passport and motioned me on my way. To this day, I will never know where the US passports line is. As I am a pretty sensitive individual, this jostled me for a good 30 minutes after. Emily thought it was hilarious.

We then got zloty (Polish currency) out of an atm and went outside. A man in a suit and nice coat walked up to us and asked if we needed a taxi. Thrilled he spoke English, we said yes and got into the fancy, black-interior sedan. The weather was foggy, the air cold, and at this point it was about 12:15am. When we started driving, he knew where we were headed. And then I noticed that we were following two black mini-vans for the first 2/3 of the journey. Readers, this was when I thought we were done for. After 25 minutes we finally made it to our hostel which was pitch-black and locked. We asked the driver to watch us open the door and make sure we got in. He said he understood until we we got out of the car and he immediately drove away. We were buzzed into the old building and walked all the way through a dark hall and a courtyard until we found reception peculiarly situated toward the rear of the building. We locked our belongings in lockers, tripped our way into the dark and quiet 8-person sleeping dorm, and (nestled with our locker keys) settled in for a tumultuous night of sleep.

Day 1:
Emily and I had a very ambitious day planned and began by meeting a bus to go to Auschwitz for a walking tour. Nothing I write will ever do this tragic site justice so I will summarize by saying it was humbling, awing, and makes me especially grateful for the time and location in which I was born. Here are some pictures:

After we returned, we went to the hostel for a short and reviving nap.

We were getting hungry at this point and went to a random restaurant to eat. The server spoke English and they had free wifi so we loved the place right from the beginning. I ordered pasta with steak in it and it was absolutely delicious. Emily got a salad with chicken and enjoyed it as well. Every time we passed this restaurant during the rest of the trip we stopped outside to use the wifi - primarily for google maps updates.

After dinner we headed to Old Town. This is a huge square that is breathtaking and full of people, shops, and things to do. Turns out we were visiting during a huge festival in the square so it was lit up with tents and activities both nights we came to this area. There were street performers and people flicking lighted balls and stuff through the sky, Disneylandesque in the most favorable way.

We met our free tour in front of St. Mary's church at 8pm. This tour was a "Macabre Tour" so instead of showing us normal historical things, the guide shared legends of Krakow and local lore. It was very interesting, kind of creepy, and cold - all in all a good time. 

Our tour guide.

Our tour guide's helpful assistant...

To warm up after, we went shopping (because, unlike Ireland, everything in Krakow is open until at least midnight) and went into a chocolate shop for a snack. I ordered a dark chocolate square and an "Apple Cinnamon Chocolate Czekolady Smakowe" which ended up being like a warm cup of hot fudge with some apple pieces in it. To preserve my well-being I did not finish this drink entirely, but it was certainly a good laugh!

Then we went back to the hostel after a bit more shopping on the way.

The rest of the adventure to come!

Yours,

The Opinionated Lassie

Hiatus

I apologize for my lack of blogging... I am currently traveling and will post A TON when I return. Here are some pictures - a small appetizer I suppose!! Thanks for your patience and get ready to read in a day or two!!

Yours,

The Opinionated Lassie

It's Official!

Small but important update:

After a few days of thinking about it, and pondering over this important decision, I finally caved and bought the Irish dancing shoes I have been wanting!

And I think I am an official Irish dancer now!

These shoes are so comfortable (and cute - whether or not you can tell in the pictures) and I can't wait until tomorrow when I can dance in them for the first time (outside of the apartment and my room of course!). The shoe store owner knew my dance teacher and gave me a discount so I couldn't be more grateful! 

Roommate Emily also got a pair so I will post videos or something of the two of us
 in the future!

Dance on my friends!
The Opinionated Lassie

Room Overview

Howdy! I am finally getting around to a requested and exciting post: a room overview! Many family and friends were wondering before I came, and have been asking since, what my room looks like and what it is like living in a 6-person apartment. Even though I had no decorations or organizational containers coming here, I am very proud of how my room turned out and am excited to show you a comprehensive look at this temporary space.

Here is a rough sketch of the apartment's layout. I apologize as drawing has never been my strong suit, but I hope this helps explain the layout and gives a general (note-card-sized) overview. The door to the apartment is in the bottom middle of the sketch. Because of Irish fire codes all of the rooms must be separated by doors, therefore, initially, you walk into a hallway. A long, very purple, dark hallway. This hallway runs parallel to the public hallway and is the channel through which I travel to get from my room to another's, or from my room to the living/kitchen area. Sometimes I even jog going to the kitchen because the hallway is so long. 

I am one of six people living in the space. My roommate from Germany lives in room #1, I live in room #2, the other Kansas girls share room #3, my French roommate lives in room #4, and my Colorado roommate lives in room #5 (which is not included in my drawing as it protrudes in the other direction). Each room has its own bathroom (I left these out of every room but mine), and includes one desk and one bed per person.

Kitchen and Dining Area

Dining and Living Area

Super long hallway

The common area has proven a nice place to work on homework and eat meals. Often more than one person is eating dinner at a time and having a formal seating area for meals and a full kitchen to cook in has been delightful!

So once you walk down the super long hallway, I am the second-to-last room on the left. When you first walk into my room, my bathroom is on the left and then my room opens up to the bed, desk, and closet area. 

My bathroom is red and I like it a lot. Because I didn't bring any room decor with me, I have been making use of free maps and calendars handed out at school functions. Anything that is cheery and potentially useful works wonderfully. My favorite decoration is the map in the picture below. It is colorful and paints a clear picture of Cork City Centre. This way, as I finish getting ready, I can figure out where I need to walk for the day and plan my routes to different hotspots.

Sink and mirror with my favorite map

Me and some happy mirror quotes!

Now on to my main and most favorite area, my room! This space features a twin-size bed, a large desk and shelving, a cork board (from Cork - like a literal Cork board), and a closet. As you can see, decoration consists of more maps, the colors of my duvet cover (kindly loaned to me by my Irish family members) and my various jackets (hanging on command hooks I found at the grocery store). Once again, refer to my drawing for room orientation help. I am fairly happy with how my room looks and how it functions. I try my very best to keep it this clean (though I occasionally fail at achieving this goal), and have a decent view when looking out over my desk (which you can't see because these pictures were taken at night). Also, my bed has Dolly Dolly (my travel Dolly Dolly of course, the original is staying at home), and my favorite $5 Walmart Christmas dog blanket (it has dogs on it, it is not designed for dogs).

Anyways, there is an in-depth look at my accommodation! The whole room separation thing was a bit strange in the beginning but I am used to it now and think it is fine! I absolutely love having my own room and being able to go there whenever I want some alone time! Thanks for reading!

Monsoon and Mocktoberfest

Monsoon season is upon us here in Ireland after over a month of beautiful sunshine. The locals said it would happen, but I continued hoping for the "uncharacteristically nice" weather to continue. The rain - really today is the first day like this - makes the whole day feel dark and dreary. It is impossible to know what time it is (as there is no sun and the sky is very gray). I was shopping in Cork City Centre and, even though it was 2pm, it looked like it was about 7pm this afternoon.

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, I have been rather busy and appear to have contracted a small cold. 

The only exciting event that I have been to was the Oktoberfest (perhaps more appropriately the Mocktoberfest) party that is thrown in Cork City every year. I was very very distracted for the first hour and a half, not realizing that my cold medicine was a drowsy formula, and had taken some a bit before we left. After the haze lifted from my eyes, I had a fun time! Basically it was a lot of people drinking liters of Paulaner (fill in the blank) beer and dancing to blaring American dance music from the 1980s. Not very cultural, not very German, but a perfect respite for 20-somethings looking for an activity. 

Naturally they give you a German name... so of course I got Ludwig!

After Oktoberfest, the roomies and I returned back to the apartment as we had class today at 11am.

And readers, this was no ordinary class, this was my step-dancing class, that I am in love with! I am not a particularly coordinated mover in any way. However, for whatever reason I have taken to step dancing quite successfully! I don't want to say I am a natural - that would be hyperbolic - but I am not unnatural, I suppose. My new mission is to get a pair of step dancing shoes so I look like a real pro! 

Look for more blogs to come!

The Opinionated Lassie

Kinsale, Inchydoney, and Timoleague

Yesterday, the roommates and I took yet another Paddywagon Tour. This time we went to Kinsale and West Cork. I cannot believe all of the awesome sites we saw on the tour and, even though the day was very long, I had a wonderful time!

After we first departed from Cork City, we headed towards Kinsale and stopped at Charles Fort on the way. This is a star-shaped fort formerly used to protect the port at Kinsale from unwanted entries. We began by receiving a 20-minute introduction from a guide and then were free to roam around the remains of the historic landmark. And when I say roam, I mean find all good picture opportunities and take them.

 

To live in the Fort in the 17th-19th centuries, you either had to be a soldier, an officer, the governor, or a family member on one of those three. The guide kept saying how cramped the conditions would be because the soldiers' quarters would have up to twelve men staying in a small room all together. 6% of the men living in the fort could have their families live with them. This was decided by a lottery system after a soldier had served a certain amount of time. However, the family would just move into a room with the other twelve men and the only privacy they could get would be an extra sheet hanging from the ceiling. 

The soldiers, after joining the army between the ages of 16 and 45, would then be members of the army for life. The only way to make it to higher ranks was to buy one's title so poor men were never able to progress. While the cramped soldiers' room would be a bit small, I rather liked the officers' rooms as they all were of decent size and had fireplaces. If I lived in the fort, I could have happily been an officer, except I am female and that never would have worked out...

The fort also had a hospital, but only barbers and butchers had the appropriate tools to amputate, cauterize, and blood-let, so they performed the surgeries. Also, soldier punishment was another busy area for the hospital, as soldiers were publicly shamed with a cat-tail whips and would then have to go to the hospital to recover.

After the interesting fort, we got back on the boat and headed to the close town of Kinsale, Co. Cork. This is an idyllic coastal town with quaint shops and restaurants, that looks like it could be found in France.There were many beautiful views of the harbor, and we got lunch and did some shopping during our 2-hour break.

After the stop in Kinsale, the driver continued on to Old Head, a beautiful Cliff area, which is best known for its seaside golf course. We had great picture opportunities in this area, and were facinated by the picturesque and windy area.

After Old Head, we made a brief stop at Timoleague Abbey and got to stretch our legs and check out the ruins of the old building.

And finally, to conclude our day, the tour took us back to my favorite location from my music field trip, Inchydoney Beach! I loved hurling (the sport) at this location and walking around in the sand. This time, because the stop was short, me, Lindsey and Emily wandered down to the water and went into the luxury hotel overlooking the scenic area. The whole day, as we were driving around, I kept wondering if we would be close to this location and when the driver said we would stop I was so pleased and excited. One week later after my initial time there, it was just as beautiful as I remembered!

Another good Irish day! I am very grateful for this, another remarkable adventure, and excited for even more to come!

Yours,
The Opinionated Lassie