In Krakow

I arrived in Krakow yesterday. It's hot here, but my room is VERY nice & VERY reasonable, and near the center of things. I went to the first Rozstaje concert last night, really really good traditional Polish music. The fiddler was unbelievable. I bought a CD. Then they danced afterwards, but it was about 100 F in the hall, all the dances were fast & lasted 10 minutes or so. I chose disgression over valor. They did a grand march, only they RAN through it, and it lasted about 15 minutes.

Spent 3 hours in the Czartoryski Museum today, all very much worth it. From ancient Egyptian to about 1800, sculpture, paintings, armaments, artefacts. They had Kosciusko's waistcoat and sword, a quill used by Voltaire, the daVinci "Woman with an Ermine" a Rembrandt landscape, a Turkish tent & lots of swords, etc. captured by Jan Sobieski's troops outside Vienna in 1683, plus lots more.

Poland can still be frustrating to travel in. When I arrived at the domestic terminal of the small airport here (now Jan Pawel II Airport) I asked information about how to get to the Rynek, the center of town. He said to take the 292 bus. So I went out to the bus-stop & it listed times of departure of buses, very 30 minutes. A bit late, a bus arrived. I asked if he's going to the Rynek. He says, no. I ask again, he shakes his head. I stayed on anyway, an act of faith.

Turns out the bus went to the international terminal, where you catch the 292. Information should have told me that's what I needed to do...take one bus to get to the other....but didn't.

I'll update the blog with more pictures from after campe, in the next days.

Off now to an evening of traditional folk music... from stages in the Rynek.

Love!
Ken