OH CANADA! Is really really cold….

Long time no post, my apologizes!  I SAID (again) that I was going to make Stephen right the next one about work and such.  Honest to God, he has started and written an entire 630 words.  None of which are about work, aside from his first weekend Polish vodka party.  And it’s only taken one month!  I give up.  You may or may never read it.  Boys will be boys…..

To be completely honest, we were not hugely motivated to explore Montreal after traveling Europe for 6 months.  It’s a big, modern city, a lot more “American” than Europe.  The weather was already turning chilly at the beginning.  And we had football all day every Saturday.  But I am happy to say that we have eaten at a number of delicious restaurants (Montreal is known for it’s restaurants and famous chefs!) and I have become more acquainted with my current city since I had visitors over the last few weeks 🙂

Before I get to visitors, let’s back up a little bit.  We are still enjoying living in our apartment building, with it’s great location, and lots of friends nearby!  We finished the CrossFit 101 introduction class, and have been attending regular classes 3-4 times per week.  I’ve been busting out a load of new PR’s lately, and my coach says I could be ready for the 2014 Games 😉

I began volunteering for a group called EMB that assists senior citizens throughout the community.  About once a week I visit with a nice lady who lives on the street over from ours.  She has limited mobility and no family in the city, so she sometimes gets lonely.  She is 85 years old and an absolute hoot!  She told me that a young college boy comes to her house every other Saturday to do her grocery shopping, and she described him as “good eye candy!”

Unfortunately, though I applied for a work permit months ago so that I could substitute in an English school, I am still empty-handed.  Luckily, I was blessed enough to find a family to nanny for!  Beginning in January, I will be taking care of 3-year-old twin boys and a first grade girl.  They are a bit of a handful, but super sweet, and creative, and energetic.  I am definitely ready to get back to work!  Yes, that probably sounds crazy to a lot of you, but not having anything to do for 8 months is overrated.  It gets really boring….

Over Thanksgiving, my little sister Jessica came to visit!  She arrived on my birthday and so we all went out for a nice dinner to a steak restaurant with UNLIMITED french fries!  Yes, you read that correctly.  Unlimited french fries.  My type of place!  Thursday was Thanksgiving and Stephen took the day off from work to help us cook!  We watched the Macy’s parade, the dog show, and football to make it a true Thanksgiving! haha.  Luckily, Montreal is only about a 1 hour drive from Vermont, and we get a number of television and radio stations from there!  We invited all of the grads over for Thanksgiving dinner, and divided it up potluck style.  Amazingly, out of our cupboard-sized kitchen, we were able to whip up a turkey, stuffing, gravy, corn, and Grandma beans (the most perfect holiday food dish in existence, if you have not had the pleasure of eating them).  The rest of the grads brought mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, etc.  We had a full Thanksgiving feast for 12 with 5 Americans, one Singaporian (?) one Canadian, and 5 Brits!  I think they had a successful first Thanksgiving experience: I told the story of Thanksgiving and had to assure them it is not about the colonists killing the Indians, and everyone ate until they couldn’t eat anymore and were dreading going to work the next day 🙂

That Friday, Jessica and I walked around the old-town area of Montreal with cobblestone streets, cafes, shops, and European-style buildings.  It is such a cute area right on the port.  We found a delicious maple syrup store with icecream, a bakery, and free taste-testing of everything!  I bought some maple-cinnamon butter.  But there is not dairy or anything in it, just a high sap concentration boiled at a high temperature, and it turns into the consistency of butter!  I didn’t even know that was a thing!  Friday night we went to the Montreal Casino because the drinking and gambling age in Quebec is 18, so the 20-year-old wanted to feel like a hot shot 😉  No worries though, we played the slots for over 2 hours with only $10-20 each!  Saturday of course was Rivalry Weekend and we once again spent the entire day watching football.  But with great success!  Ohio St beat Michigan and South Carolina beat Clemson for the fifth straight year!

The following Friday my college roommate, Alison arrived!  We visited many of the same places that I went with Jessica, and also went to a Christmas market, and shopping!  We ate poutine for the first time.  It’s a Montreal food that is made of french fries, cheese curds and gravy.  It sounds, and looks, disgusting.  But there is a great restaurant called Poutineville that everyone had recommended, and they have TONS of options including different types of cheeses, vegetables, meats, types of potatoes, etc.  You can pick an already-made creation, or check off all the ingredients you want on the list and create your own!  It’s actually good!  But definitely not something you should eat every day! haha.

On Monday morning we bundled up like Eskimos and trekked our way through the snow to the airport shuttle bus.  (Have I ever mentioned that, for the most part, I really really like public transportation??  Unfortunately it is a lot more expensive here than in Poland, but driving is also nerve-wracking because Montreal-ers are crazy and the traffic lights are different.  More American cities should get on board.)  The timing SHOULD have worked out great, because Alison needed to be at the airport by 12:30 and my other sister, Sarah, was arriving at 1:00!  Of course planes were delayed and I sat at the airport for 3 hours, but both girls had safe trips so that’s all that matters 🙂

Sarah and I did the same touristy things again.  But we also visited Notre Dame Basilica (where Celine Dion was married!  They are very proud of this fact) and could not have gone at a better time!!  The website said they held English and French tours twice an hour, so we went in the morning just before 11:30.  But that must be their more popular summer schedule because the next English tour was not going to be until 1:30.  So we went back at 1:30 and the tour finished just as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra was beginning rehearsal for a Christmas concert being held at the basilica that night!  I don’t remember the singer’s name, but he had released a Christmas album 10 years ago, and was giving an anniversary concert.  Tickets ranged from $40-95, but we were able to sit through 45 minutes of the rehearsal for free!  The music and the lights and everything was beautiful!!

On Wednesday Sarah and I ventured to Mont Bromont for skiing!!  We have skied a number of times before, but not for probably 6 or 7 years.  Luckily it was like riding a bike, and I only feel one time!  Sarah didn’t fall at all (go, girl!)  Seeing as it was the middle of the week, there were not many people, which was very nice because we didn’t have to worry about running into other people!  Here is my newest skiing tip: do NOT take your glove off on the ski lift even if you need to fix your scarf because your nose is so cold that it is going to fall off.  Your glove WILL be blown away, conveniently in an area where there is not a ski run.  Yes, true story.  I got off the lift thinking this was the end of my ski day, even though it was only our first run after lunch, because there was NO WAY I could ski the rest of the day without a glove.  But an Emergency Patrol skier saved the day!!  Two of them were on the lift directly behind us, saw my glove fall, and got it back!!   A happy ending to an unfortunate story 🙂

That pretty much sums up our Canadian adventures thus far!  Yes, it has gotten very cold. Yesterday it was -6 Fahrenheit, before wind chill.  This morning I woke up to 7 inches of snow.  But my fur-hooded, knee-length winter coat, and my winter boots are holding up nicely.  And we return to Atlanta on Friday!!!  For 2 weeks!!!

Merry-almost-Christmas and all our love from Canada!

Bonjour!

Hello from Montreal!  I finally arrived in Canada last Tuesday night after 2 full days of driving.  Thanks, Mom, for driving all the way with me!!  Luckily, because we are only coming into the country temporarily, I was able to bring my car for FREE!  Which is even MORE exciting when you see how much it costs to import a car into this country haha.  And that means we got to bring extra stuff, like the Crockpot, Magic Bullet, yummy-smelling candles 🙂  The lovely things I missed in Poland.  Oh yes, and all the winter clothes that take up way too much space!  

Our apartment is smack in downtown Montreal, which makes walking easy, and the Metro stop is close.  We live on a cute little street with lots of apartments and trees, but you hit the main rode after walking for about 1 minute.  The apartment is nice, and all of the grads in Stephen’s program live in the building too, which is convenient for getting together!  It feels a little like college though, running down the hall to ask someone a question haha.  We have a fully-enclosed bedroom, a real coffee table, a real couch, and a bed we can get into from both sides!  Yes, this is a big deal. (aka: it’s better than Poland).  Our kitchen could compete for “World’s Smallest Kitchen.”  However, it has an OVEN!  And today the building gave us another table so I have counter space to cook on now 🙂  It’s the little things…

We have been pretty busy!  Thursday nights are dinner night out with the grads.  Tonight we are hitting a Mexican restaurant.  Last Saturday we hosted football at our apartment.  All day.  It was long. And South Carolina lost 😦  But it was lots of fun.  We had SO MUCH tailgate food.  Including BBQ pulled pork sandwiches that I made and were quite delicious 🙂  And we taught a Brit all about college football.  On Saturday we hit up the farmer’s market.  There are 4 around the city.  And they are there all year!  When it gets colder they set up tents and such.  We also decided to brave the city streets and drive.  Let’s just say, I won’t be doing that unless necessary 🙂

Happily for us, there is a lot of English here!!  At least in the city.  I have heard it’s very different once you get out of downtown.  But there really isn’t much reason to leave, so all is good haha.  Everyone in the stores speaks English, and I haven’t encountered anyone who wasn’t willing to speak English with me.  So far so good!  Even the grocery is in English!  Actually, it’s both.  The products are double-sided; French on one side and English on the other.  And they have lots of American brands, and foods we are familiar with.  Happy day!

We have started CrossFit again which Stephen and I are both really excited about!  We did CrossFit in Indiana (hey, NapTown!!) but there was no box in Poland so we had to take off.  CrossFit Ville Marie is only a 10 minute walk, and has only been open for 2 months, so it’s no super crowded yet.  We are taking an intro course to brush up on our form, but have attended a few regular classes in between.  We need to get back in shape haha 🙂

I will try getting Stephen to write a post soon about his job, because honestly, I’m not really sure what his role is now haha.  But that’s kind of important, since it is the only reason we are in Canada, right?  

Our door is open for anyone who wants to come visit!  But spaces are filling up fast, so book our pull-out-couch ASAP to reserve your dates 😉

Love, hugs, and stay-warm-wishes!  (It’s scarf and gloves weather here already…)

Home Sweet Home

The last 2 weeks have gone too fast.  Stephen and I both made it home safely.  The travels were not without difficult; who would get that lucky on an international flight with connections?!  But we made it 🙂  Got over jetlag quickly and had a great time visiting with friends and family!

I hit the ground running, celebrating good ol’ America!  Friday morning, after a wonderful 10 hours of sleep, I went to a Group Fitness class with my mom at the gym and got my butt kicked.  Then I spent a lovely 3 hours at the DMV.  America! 🙂  But they day ended wonderfully with cheeseburgers at the Brave’s game with my mom, dad, and the lovely Rachel.  The Braves won the game, and we celebrated with Friday night fireworks and a Scotty McCreery concert!  Saturday morning Mom, Mrs. Janet and I went to the Duluth Fall Festival.  And then we watched football for the rest of the day!  Go Cockeyes! (Gamecocks + Buckeyes)

Of course, we savored all of our favorite American foods!  Hello Chick-fil-a, Taco Mac, Chow baby, Qdoba, and homemade mama’s cooking!  And fully enjoyed all of the home/American things that we normally take advantage of, but missed while in Poland.  For example, free water and free refills on drinks (with ice!), watching TV (even the commercials!) reading signs and everything at the store, smiling at people and having them smile back, being in the same timezone as our family and friends, and eves-dropping on conversations 😉  When I was at the DMV, I was outside stretching my legs and heard a guy talking on his phone.  My first thought was “He is speaking English with a southern accent!  I wonder where he is from?”  And then I remembered that yes, I was in America and not Poland.  I’m glad I didn’t ask him where he was from.  I would have looked like quite a fool 😛

Sunday night Stephen FINALLY made it home and it was so nice to see him after 2 longs weeks 🙂  We spent the week getting everything situated for our next move…such as going to the Car Title office 3 times…  Let me just say that moving is a pain.  Especially when your permanent address is at 2 different houses where you don’t actually live, some documents still need a name change, and neither of you has a US phone number.  Good times.  But the weather was nice and warm, and we had a great time seeing our families 🙂

Friday was a SUPER exciting day because we drove to Charleston to visit Stephen’s sister, her husband, and our new baby nephew!!!  He is the most perfect little baby I’ve ever seen, if I do say so myself 🙂  And of course he just loved Uncle Stephen and Aunt Megan!  At least as much as a 2-week-old baby can haha.  But the cute little Krakow onsie that we bought fit him and he looked super adorable.  That night, 2 of Stephen’s cousins who live in Charleston, one of the cousin’s boyfriends, and our friend from USC who is in med school in Charleston now, came over for dinner.  It was such a fun night!

On Saturday we drove to Columbia for the USC vs. Kentucky football game!  My parents, and Stephen’s dad and brother also came.   We had some great tailgate food, and played, quite possibly, the world’s longest game of cornhole ever.  Mom and I beat Stephen and James!  Success 🙂  We got to visit with some friends (yay for seeing my roomie!) and enjoy a Gamecock win!  It was so great to be back in Columbia and Williams Brice Stadium!

Sunday morning Stephen flew to Montreal!  I got to visit with the beautiful, bride-to-be, Kristin!  Because my husband is wonderful, he let me stay at home in Atlanta for an extra week 🙂  I went to the gym with my mom, took our puppy Sadie to the dog park, got some more moving paperwork in order, and shopped for more sweaters (I’m going to need them! haha).  I also got to watch Gamecock football with my awesome roommate (I got to see BOTH roommates on this home visit!  How lucky am I!?) AND watched Alabama football with Elizabeth!

Stephen had his first day of work on last Monday.  Honestly, I don’t know too much about it.  Unfortunately, the internet isn’t working so well in our apartment yet, so I have not been able to talk with him much.  But I will let you know soon!  My mom wins the Mom of the Year award because she is driving all the way up to Montreal with me so we can have a car!  Yay 20 hours in the car.  We leave tomorrow morning (Monday) and will arrive on Tuesday!  Home has been awesome, but I am excited to explore a new city!!

Visiting dates are booking up fast….my sister, Jessica, is coming to visit Nov. 26-30, and my roommate is coming Dec. 6-9!  We have a pull-out couch, so let us know when you are coming! 🙂

Stockholm With the Birthday Girl!

Let me just say these last 2 weeks have been CRAZY.  Partially crazy in a good way because we have been traveling and winding now our European adventure.  But other part crazy because our travel plans have changed, out of our control.  Initially, Stephen and I were supposed to fly back to Atlanta tomorrow, Sept. 26 on the same flight.  Lucky me, because he was going to share his business class seat with me 😉  Well, now it’s lucky for him because we are on different flights and he gets that big comfy chair all to himself haha.  When Stephen went in to work the first day after returning from our cruise, the boss-man says that he is going to Gniew, Poland for a 3-day business trip the following week.  Great, no problem.  It has to be nice to get out of the office and see a new town!  That same week/weekend of the business trip, we are supposed to go to Stockholm, Sweden and meet up with my best friend.  I was going a few days earlier than Stephen, but the business trip was not affecting the Sweden trip so all is good.  BUT then he gets an email that he is to attend a week of training, for his role in Canada, in the UK Monday-Friday of the next week.  Problem.  We are supposed to fly home on Thursday.  Long story made shorter, after many emails, phone calls, changing flights and frantically beginning to organize and pack this is what our last 2 weeks has ended up:  Monday night Stephen leaves for Gniew.  Wednesday night Megan leaves for Stockholm.  Thursday night Stephen gets back to Krakow and spends the weekend packing and organizing (and watching football of course!)  Sunday night Megan gets back to Krakow and Stephen leaves for the UK.  We were in the airport at the same time but could not see each other 😦  Thursday morning Megan leaves for ATLANTA!  Saturday morning Stephen returns to Krakow.  Sunday morning Stephen leaves for Atlanta.  Whew!  Got all that?  Yeah, me either.  I had to write out a schedule.  This whole “being apart for 2 weeks” things was not supposed to happen.  I hope Sunday gets here fast!

Now to the FUN part!  I went to Stockholm, Sweden to visit my best friend Beth and celebrate her birthday!  If you don’t know Beth, she is spending this semester of her graduate program in Tartun, Estonia, and will study spring semester in Warsaw, Poland.  We knew we were going to both be in Europe for about 4 weeks, and just HAD to make something happen!  Poland and Estonia aren’t that far apart…….I will pause so you can go look it up on a map (I had to)……..especially considering that Europe is small, so finding a place to meet shouldn’t be too difficult, right?  Wrong.  Beth and I are both traveling out of small airports, and also wanted cheap/affordable plane tickets.  That’s not a great combination.  One night, we Skyped for an hour and a half trying to figure out where to go.  The destination did not matter at all, just that we could get there!  This is how it went:

Megan: “How about (insert city name here)?  Ryan Air tickets are cheap!  Oh wait, I would arrive Thursday morning and you would arrive Friday night.  Never mind….”

Beth: “How about I come to Krakow?  Oh wait, it would take me 23 hours of travel time…..”

Repeat over and over.  Until FINALLY….

Megan: “Stockholm!  Round-trip tickets are $47 and we will arrive 10 minutes apart from each other!”  *cue praise music*

Beth: “Stockholm!  Perfect!  Let’s do it!  I’m so excited!  What’s in Stockholm?”

Megan: “I have no idea.”

I have done that quite a few times since arriving to Europe.  I find a city that is cheap to travel to, and then find out what is there after!  It’s been pretty effective 🙂  For the rest of this post, I am tempted to say “I will post a link when Beth has written her Stockholm post and you can read that instead” because she is a much better writer than I am.  So if you would like to stop now and go read Beth’s instead, feel free.  I won’t be offended 🙂  Anyway, we both arrived on Wednesday night, literally walking into baggage claim at the exact same time.  The airport was 1 1/2 hours from the city center, and we arrive at 11:00pm, so we stayed at a hotel within walking distance of the airport.  We had a “Quick Sleep” room which literally consisted of a table, chair and set of bunk beds that we had to put sheets on ourselves haha.  But it was clean, cheap, and included breakfast so no complaints!  Thursday morning, after singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the now 24-year-old Beth, we walked back to the airport and took the shuttle bus into Stockholm.  Seriously, Europe has the public transportation thing down.  Why does the US not do this?  It really is wonderful.

We arrived in the city, purchased the Stockholm City card (this is the BEST city card I have found.  Really.), got on the subway without having to figure out the ticket machine (thank you, city card!) and found our way to the hostel.  After dropping off our bags, we went out to explore.  It was a little drizzly/misty when we were walking to our hostel, and by the time we came out, the sun was shining!  The weather forecast had seriously said 70% + chance of rain, and cold, every day we were there, so the sun was wonderful!  And Beth did not have sunglasses haha.  We walked around for quite a while, just trying to read the map and navigate the streets.  Stockholm is a little bit confusing.  It is very big, and is spread out over a number of different islands.  But we made our way to the palace and visited the Royal Armory that held armor and swords and clothes etc.  Beth will tell you that my “Game of Thrones” nerd-self was geeking out.  I was, no shame.  Then we wen to the SkyView, which is a ride to the top of a spherical building where you can get a great view over the city.  (These attractions were included in our city card.  All we had to do was hand over the card to be scanned.  Magical!  And literally EVERY single attraction in the city, including the freak amusement park! and all public transportation, except ferry boats, is included.  So great.)  We ate dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant recommended by the guy who worked at our hostel.  There was only a Swedish menu, and the waitress spoke a little English, so I literally pointed to the table next to us and said “I want that!”  Beth said “Me too!  But chicken, not beef.”  It was so good, I thought Beth might lick her plate clean 😉  After dinner we of course had to find birthday dessert!  There was a super cute bakery (Sweden has SO MANY BAKERIES AND PASTRIES oh my gosh) that was perfect.  We split 5 different things?  Yes, I think 5.  They were small though 🙂  Sort of….

The hostel we stayed in ended up being great!  (If you travel to Stockholm sometime, I recommend it and will give you the name!)  All the parents/adults are probably shuddering right now, picturing a dirty hole-in-the-wall with bugs and stained sheets.  As we were trying to choose a place to stay, I have to admit that Beth and I were picturing that hole-in-the-wall too.  The ratings for Stockholm hostels were just NOT up there.  But we found this one on TripAdvisor, rated 92% and I have found them to legit, so we each booked a bed in an 8-bed room.  Yes, we were going to be sleeping with strangers.  But the hostel was very clean, and decently quiet, with a nice big kitchen, a locker for your valuables, and the beds were super sturdy wood, not cheap metal ones that squeak.  We also got SUPER lucky with our roommates.  Each night, there was 1 solo-traveler, and a group of 5 French students who were there all 3 nights with us.  They were really nice and considerate and we enjoyed talking to them a lot!  And for your laughing pleasure, this actually happened:

“We are sharing a room in the hostel with some very nice French university students. They asked me where I went to school. I told them about West Virginia University. Later on in the conversation, one of the guys asked me how I liked “West Vagina.” I said “Excuse me?!” only to hear him repeat it again. And thus began the funniest lesson in English pronunciation I have yet to experience…”  (copied from Beth’s FB status)

Friday was a BUSY busy day!  We visited the Stockholm, Cathedral, called Storkyrkan.  It had one of my favorite statues I have ever seen, called St. George and the Dragon.  Just look at that face….

Then we went on a boat tour (yay city card!) toured through the Royal Treasury, the Royal apartments, and saw the Changing of the Guard.  We ate really delicious chicken paninis at a cafe, and followed up with a mixed-berry pie.  I am so thankful that Beth is as big of a dessert freak as I am because, unfortunately, Stephen is not, and it makes me sad sometimes.  I should mention that the day before, besides the after-dinner birthday desserts, we also shared a giant homemade dark-chocolate covered marshmallow.  And shared some kind of cinnamon pastry at breakfast.  Now moving on….

We walked off some of our dessert on a Free Walking Tour of the Old Town!  🙂  Free walking tours are one of the BEST things about traveling in Europe!  They are in almost every city, and in English.  You tip the guide as you see fit at the end of the tour, so they are always super friendly and knowledgable because they are working for your money!  The Old Town is so cute with it’s tiny alley-ways, cobblestone streets, and cafes on the square.  But then other parts of the city are very modern with shopping malls and high-rise buildings.  But you are never more than a couple of minutes walk from the water wherever you are and it is just beautiful.  

Beth, the super-runner, has a half-marathon coming up in just a few weeks, so she needed to get some miles under her feet that afternoon.  My knee has been acting up, but I was going to go for a walk.  But luck was on my side, because the girl at reception told Beth about a nice jogging trail down by the water (only 5 minute walk from our hostel) and said there was a free outdoor gym!  It had all these machines made out of wood, with different sized logs for different weights and I got a full lower-body and abs circuit workout completed in the sunshine 🙂

Saturday morning began with another run/work-out and then on to the Vasa Museum, one of the most popular attractions in Stockholm.  Vasa is a ship with a tragic history.  It was built in the 1600’s, and literally sank in the harbor on it’s maiden voyage.  It was pulled out of the water 333 years later, and is now a museum!  The ship has been incredibly preserved because of the type of water it sank it.  Very cool!  Of course, our trip had been running so smoothly that SOMETHING had to go wrong.  I accidentally broke my city card! Literally in 2 pieces haha.  It would still be fine to get on the subway because you just show the person your card with the date on it.  But we had one more museum to visit, and I didn’t know if it would still be able to scan!  When I handed it to the man at the Skansen museum, he gawked at me haha.  But he held the card together before sticking it in the machine and luckily it worked!  Skansen is an open-air museum with live actors in period-clothings, and nordic animals, and buildings taken from all over Sweden.  Walking through history!  🙂  It was a beautiful day and lots of fun!

Beth and I were super sad to say goodbye on Sunday but so so blessed that we got to take this trip together!  We really could not have asked for a better time!  She has already asked how we are going to top her birthday next year, though.  Any ideas? 🙂

And now…..I GO HOME TOMORROW!!!!!  Europe has truly been the experience of a lifetime.  It has been a little crazy at times, to be sure.  But Stephen and I are so incredibly blessed that we were able to go on this adventure together.  (And without the added responsibilities of pets or kids! haha.)  Over the past 6 months, we have visited a combined total of 9 countries and13 cities (plus a few extra on business trips!), seen amazing landmarks, eaten delicious food, cruised on the Mediterranean, and met up with friends and family.  And I could probably become a successful personal travel agent or Krakow tour guide. I’ve gotten really good 😉 We are really looking forward to seeing our family and friends this next week.  OH YES!  And meeting our nephew!!!  His name is Liam, and he was born to Stephen’s sister, Caroline, on Sept. 15.  We have met him on Skype, and he is the most perfect, precious baby boy 🙂  And of course we will be gearing-up for Canada.  Wish us luck 🙂 

All Aboard!

I should probably finish telling y’all about our last trip before I go on another one, right?  Ok, here goes! 🙂

I already told you about our fabulous Saturday in Barcelona.  On Sunday, we slept in and then headed to our cruise ship!  We sailed 7-nights on the Norwegian Epic.  It was ginormous!  That really is the best way I can describe it.  It is so big that you can’t take a picture of the whole thing and the side just looks like a giant hotel.  And it was SUPER nice.  And clean.  Stephen made fun of me because I was super excited about the hand sanitizer that they had EVERYWHERE.  (For those who don’t know me well, I hate hotels and I’m a slight germaphobe, so this was fabulous).  Anyway, we had a tiny little inside stateroom (no window) but it was so cute and a really comfy bed.  The ship had 2 buffets, an American sports bar-type restaurant, and 2 nicer restaurants included.  (There were quite a few restaurants that were extra charge, but we didn’t go to any of those).  The “official” language of the ship was English, and there was lots of American type stuff so we were pretty excited….such as, ice in the drinks, and cereal at breakfast!  Oh the little things….

Monday was a day at sea.  I started the day off by eating breakfast and going to the gym!  Yes, I worked out 3 times on my vacation because 1) I ate a LOT.  ie: there was a soft-serve ice cream station and way too many other desserts to choose just one and 2) It was nicer than the gym I pay for in Poland.  Then we spent the rest of the day gettin our tan on 🙂  And reading and hitting the water slides of course!  The weather was absolutely beautiful all week, we really could not have gotten any luckier!  That night, we went to see the Blue Man Group!  There were SO many shows on the ship, and I think we went to every single one.  But Blue Man Group was great!  Apparently it was a shortened version of one of their real shows, but I have never seen anything by them before, so it was great!  One of the guys caught 18+ big marshmallows in his mouth at one time!  I lost count.  And then he took them all out, and they were mushed into a tower.  It was gross and amazing at the same time.

Tuesday we landed in Naples, Italy and took a shore excursion to Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii.  I was the most excited for this trip, and it was wonderful.  They drove us most of the way up the volcano, but then we got out and had to walk for about 30 minutes.  For part of the way we had a guide who told us about the history.  When you see the volcano from a distance, it looks like there are 2 of them.  That is because Mt. Vesuvius used to be a lot bigger, but when it erupted (and destroyed Pompeii) it literally blew itself apart and collapsed in, so now it looks like there are 2 volcanos.  The view was gorgeous, and we got to see smoke coming out of cracks in the volcano.  It was pretty cool!  Then we got back on the tour bus and drove to the city of Pompeii.  It was not what I was expecting.  I guess I should have known that the city was really well preserved because it was covered by volcanic ash and such.  But SO MUCH is still standing, and it was so much larger than I thought it would be!  And the city was a lot more advanced that I had imagined.  For example, they had running water in the “rich” houses, and public fountains for everyone else.  You can still drink from one of them!  It was a really interesting trip.  Tuesday night we saw a show of the “Graffiti Classics.”  They are a violin quartet who play classical music and do comedy at the same time.  It was cheesy but pretty funny 🙂  And they were very talented!

Wednesday’s stop was Rome.  Of course, Stephen and I have already been to Rome, so we spent another day on the ship relaxing.  It was nice because the majority of people got off the ship for excursions so it was not nearly as crowded!  We saw another show this night as well.  I can’t exactly remember what we did each night, so I will just write a separate paragraph about all those at the end 🙂

On Thursday the ship stopped in Livorno, Italy.  From there, you could travel to Naples and/or Florence.  We took a self-guided trip to Florence….the tour bus provided transportation, and we were on our own to explore the city.  Our first stop was the Academia where the Michelangelo statue “David” is.  I had set up a guided tour for us there.  Stephen and I are not normally “art” people, and when you have seen pictures of a piece of art so many times, how much better can the “real thing” actually be?  But his sister said it was one of her favorite stops and we just HAD to go so we took her advice.  It was actually quite impressive.  So much bigger than I thought it was!  There were some other Michelangelo statues there as well.  We were glad that we went.  After the museum, we saw the Baptistery and the cathedral, and a square where they have replicas of many of Florence’s famous statues so people can take pictures of them!  How considerate 🙂  We also ate pizza and gelato because we were in Italy.  DUH 🙂  Florence is famous for leather and there were purses EVERYWHERE, so we did some window shopping as well.  And I ended up with a birthday present!  Now let’s pretend I have forgotten about it….

Friday’s stop was Marseilles, France.  We were not planning on doing an excursion this day, just relaxing on the ship again.  However, there was a shuttle bus that was cheap to ride into the city.  Stephen decided to take advantage of it….he went into town, found free Wifi, and spent the entire afternoon watching football on ESPN online, and reading articles about the Gamecocks 🙂  I enjoyed another day of sun and reading…a little too much sun….but we both had a wonderfully relaxing day!

We took another shore excursion on Saturday in Majorca, Spain.  Majorca is an island, and is honestly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen!  The pictures we took really don’t do it justice because it was kind of cloudy.  But oh my gosh, the mountains and flowers and olive trees and lemon trees and AHHH, it was so great!  We first visited a monastery and had time to walk around the cute little, cobblestone town where it is located.  Then we took a drive to the town of Soller where we got onto a train.  It is one of the oldest trains in Europe, and has not been changed since it was built, except the engine is now electric.  The windows were open and my hair looked CRAZY by the end, but the trip was well worth it 🙂

Now I will finish telling you about all the shows we saw!  Already covered the Blue Man Group and Graffiti Classics.  “Legends in Concert” is another of the ship’s large shows.  Stephen and I were pretty excited about this one…the posters had Elvis, Michael Jackson, Tim McGraw, Madonna, etc.  Unfortunately, we were a tad disappointed in the actual show.  There were only 3 people, each given 30 minutes.  First was Tom Jones?  I know some of you are probably gaping at your screen and yelling at me for not knowing this guy…but I don’t.  And some people we talked to said the impersonator was not good anyway.  Tina Turner another act….expected, and she was pretty good, but wouldn’t have been my first choice.  Adele was the other.  Is she even old enough to be a legend???  But whatever, she was actually really good, and I knew all of those songs! haha.  One night there was a Spanish Ballet which was very beautiful.  I do feel bad for anyone that was on the deck underneath the theatre though…they stomp a LOT haha.  We saw a Beatle’s Tribute show, a Mexican comedy show called “Los Locos” and sang along at Howl and the Moon.  But my favorite was Cirque Dreams and Dinner.  We had to pay extra for this show, but it was so worth it.  It’s a small circular room where they serve dinner while you watch a performance like Cirque du Soleil.  It was mesmerizing: a contortionist, a girl who could hula-hoop about 30 hoops at a time all over different parts of her body, some clowns, a magician who literally dropped confetti on a lady and her dressed changed, the typical acrobats who swing around on ropes and stuff, but the girl was literally attached to the guy by a strap tied around her head and she spun in circles at a million miles an hour.  I loved every single second of it!

Stephen and I had such a wonderful trip!!  We got to see some amazing places, talk to lots of people (in English!), watch TV (Food Network!) with commercials (yes, you even miss commercials when you are in Poland without TV), get some sun, and relax too!  All of our adventures have been great, but they are just so busy, it was nice enjoy ourselves and relax at the same time.

And now we are REALLY on the countdown to returning home!  Our last couple of weeks aren’t going quite like we had originally planned…Stephen has some last minute business trips.  But we are rolling with it!  Last night (Monday) Stephen left for Gniew in northern Poland to see the plant there.  He will return on Thursday night.  Tomorrow night (Wednesday) I am flying to Stockholm, Sweden to see BETH CLEARY!!  I am super duper pumped to see her and explore the city and celebrate her birthday!!!  It is going to be just wonderful 🙂  I will come back on Sunday night.  But earlier Sunday, Stephen is leaving for the UK to do some training Monday-Friday.  I will leave for Atlanta on Thursday morning, and he will leave from Manchester on Saturday morning.  Whew!  So yes, we are not seeing each other for almost 2 weeks.  And we had to do lots of organizing and packing this past weekend that we were not expecting to do.  But it’s all working out, and we will be home soon to see our lovely family.  And our new baby nephew Liam!  He was born on Sunday and is just the most precious baby we have every seen in our whole lives.  Caroline and Alex: we haven’t even met him yet, and we are already spoiling him with presents.  Just a warning 🙂

Love from Poland!

(If you read this whole post, kudos to you.)

Un viaje a Espana!

What a week!!!  Last Friday, Aug. 30, Stephen and I headed out for an 9 day vacation!  Obviously, he was super excited to be off of work that long, and I was super excited to get to spend the whole week with him 🙂  (Luckily it wasn’t a big deal considering about half of the people in his office, including his boss, took 3+ weeks off in the month of July.  Europeans….haha)  Anyway, it started out a bit stressful…we were flying out of the Katowice Airport instead of Krakow…it is about 1 1/2 hours away.  I had booked us shuttle bus tickets in advance…they ask for your flight number, and then tell you what time you need to catch the bus, which is quite convenient.  Except that when we got to the bus station, a different bus was in that loading spot.  After going to the ticket desk twice, trying to read the bus information board in Polish, and dragging our suitcases running around the bus station like chickens with our heads cut off, one of the ticket office guys was able to say “small bus!”  It was a 15 person van, not a large greyhound type bus like we were assuming, and it was parked near the wall, not even in a loading spot…we found it with about 20 seconds to spare and made it to the airport just fine 🙂

Saturday we spent the day in beautiful Barcelona.  I was SO excited…that is one of the cities I most wanted to visit.  We actually flew in to the Girona airport, which is about 1 hour outside of Barcelona, and our plane landed very late, so we stayed the night in Girona and took a train to the city the following morning.  I had booked a room in a small, privately owned hotel in Barcelona that was highly recommended on Trip Advisor because it was a convenient location and was very cheap!  When we showed up to drop our bags off, the husband and wife working the desk did not speak any English.  I had to pull out my rusty-as-junk Spanish and stumble/mime my way through communication, which I think Stephen found kind of funny, but he said he was impressed 🙂  But the owners were incredibly sweet, the room was nice, and I must have not spoken too poorly because the lady talked to me like I could understand every word she said haha.

 Because we only had 1 day, we got tickets for a hop-on-hop-off bus.  It is just like the red double-decker busses you associate with London, and has headphones you plug in and listen to information about the city as you ride around.  All of the main attractions of the city are located on on of the three bus routes, and you can get on and off the busses as often as you want.  We started in Catalonya Square, drove by the unique houses designed and built by the famous architect, Gaudi, stopped to take pictures in front of an impressive museum with lots of fountains and waterfalls (I don’t remember the name of it?), saw the old Olympic stadium and bull-fighting arenas, went to the top of the Christopher Columbus statue for an amazing view over the city, and walked along the beach.

 We also took an audio-guide tour through the Sagrada Familia Church.  This church was absolutely incredible.  And completely different than anything we have seen before.  (And we have now seen a LOT of churches haha).  The church was originally designed by the architect, Gaudi, and began sometime in the early 1900’s I believe, but is still under construction.  There is no telling when it will be finished as there is still a lot of work to be done.  I really don’t even no how to begin describing this place.  There is not dome, but many spires all dedicated to different people (the apostles, Mary, etc).  Each side of the exterior of the church is a different set of scenes….currently finished on one side is scenes from the death of Jesus, and the opposite side is the birth of Jesus.  The inside is not covered in gold or marble of religious artifacts like many churches….there are spiral staircases, and stain-glass windows, and twisting columns holding up the ceiling that fan out into beams that look like trees in a forest.  Every window and archway and alcove was expertly designed to let in just the right amount of natural light, and to perfect the acoustics of the entire church.  Really, if you have not seen picture of this place or heard much information about it, look it up.  You won’t be disappointed.

Being the first weekend of football, we researched American sports bars in the city and headed to one for dinner.  Unfortunately, there were a couple of soccer games on and we were not able to watch any games 😦  But they had free Wifi, so Stephen connected to his ESPN online account and we watched parts of some games on his phone while we ate dinner.  Lame much?  Yes.  Worth it?  Yes 🙂

We slept in a little on Sunday morning, and then headed to the Port of Barcelona to board our cruise ship!!!  But that is for another post because this one is long enough, and I have 7 full days to write about that 🙂

Home 2 weeks from tomorrow!

Love hugs and kisses xoxo

Budapest

I’ll be honest, I went into a little bit of a funk after our last visitors left because I didn’t know what to do with myself!  After being on the go for a whole month, not having every day filled with plans was a novelty!  And I had to start cooking again, which was a bummer.  But my health certainly likes it better hahaha.

And I didn’t have to sit long before we were off on our next adventure!!  Stephen found out that there was another “bank holiday” on a Thursday, which means no work!  And most people don’t usually go into the office the Friday after a holiday, for obvious reason.  So we braved the overnight train yet again (this time was a lot more comfortable because it wasn’t so hot!!) and went to Budapest, Hungry for 3 days!

Budapest is a very interesting city…it is actually 2 different cities separated by the Danube river: Buda on one side and Pest on the other (pronounced “Pesht”).  We started with a walking tour on Thursday afternoon.  A lot of the cities we have been to in Europe have free walking tours, which are awesome!!  You are not obligated to pay at all, but tip what you think the tour was worth at the end if you were satisfied!  I think this is a great system, and the guides are always fantastic because they have to work hard for your money 🙂  Anyway, on the tour we saw a couple of the main squares, learned about the drinking culture in Budapest (of course that’s the questions when the whole group is 20-somethings!) saw some of the University buildings, St. Stephen’s Cathedral (the largest church in Budapest) walked along the river and across the Chain Bridge, and then made the trek up to Castle Hill.  The palace itself has been damaged so many times by war, it is not a place of residence anymore.  It houses some museums, but the funny thing is, it was not even fixed up properly…there are plastic windows!  But the St. Matthias Church on the hill was very beautiful!  We were not able to go inside because it was closed at the time.  Stephen and I were not terribly disappointed because we have literally lost track of the number of churches we have been inside.  But the roof of this one is made of colorful tiles which was very different!  The Fisherman’s Bastion was one of my favorite things because it looks like a sandcastle!  And the view from the hill was very beautiful.

We had an early night in on Thursday because we were so tired after the train ride (when I saw early, I mean we went to sleep at 9:00 and woke up again at 8:30 haha).  On Friday we took a boat cruise down the Danube, and got off at Margaret Island, which is in the middle of the river.  It has a few hotels and a water park, lots of trees and grass areas, a jogging trail, a cute old church and monastery ruins, and also houses the complex where they train water-sport athletes for the Olympics and other national competitions.  After the cruise we went to the Sczechenyi Baths.  Budapest is built on top of hot springs, and the city is full of indoor and outdoor thermal baths.  We went to one of the most popular for tourists, but even so, a majority of the signs were in Hungarian so we weren’t quite sure about each of the different pools besides being able to read the temperature…but some of the minerals made them smell really funny.  There was a GIANT warm outdoor pool, lots of small hot tubs, some freezing cold tubs, and a bunch of saunas that could melt your face off.  And a long oval pool that had a current so if you got close enough to the wall and picked your feet up, you could ride around…that was my favorite part 🙂  It was a relaxing afternoon!

During the rest of our time in Budapest we visited the Central Market Hall, saw the Parliament Building (crazy architecture!) took a tour of the Opera House with a “mini concert” at the end, walked to the top of Gellert Hill, and visited the Cave Church.  It was a great trip!!

This past week and a half in Krakow we have been taking it slow.  Unfortunately we had to say good-bye to our friends Traci and Stephen who returned to the US last week.  But tonight we are going to an InterNations event which should be fun! (InterNations is an expat group that holds an event every month or two).  And then on Friday we leave for Barcelona and our cruise!  BEYOND excited of course 🙂

Return home: 29 days!!!!

Second Half Month of the Visitors

After my parents visiting, and traveling to Edinburgh, Stephen’s mom, dad and little sister came to visit!  They were here from Sunday-the following Monday, which gave us enough time to see everything we wanted to see, plus be able to take some breaks during the afternoon so we weren’t quite so tired 🙂  The same as with my parents, we visited the castle, the square, many of the churches, the salt mine and Auschwitz-Birkenau (just Stephen and his dad).  We also had the time to visit Schindler’s Factory which had great history of not only Schindler himself, but Poland before, during and after WWII.  We took a carriage ride around the Old Town, which was a lot of fun.  And we took a trip to Czestochowa, where there is a monastery with the famous Black Madonna painting, the most popular shrine in Poland.  The cathedral at the monastery was amazing; beautiful colored marble, and gifts such as rosaries, etc. hanging ALL over the walls.  Over the years, wealthy people would leave jewels for the painting after their prayers were answered.  At first they were stuck directly on to the painting, but thieves tried to steal them and ruined the painting.  So now, the jewels are made into “dresses.”  It is literally like a paper doll that you can put different outfits on.  It is hard to describe, but you should Google some pictures because it is really cool to see!

After Stephen’s parents left, we had just a few days before his cousins Meaghan and Cailin arrived!  We took the overnight train to Prague the first weekend, which was an interesting experience!  Luckily for Stephen and I, we had a private sleeper compartment with bunk beds, so even though we still didn’t sleep very much, we were able to lie down!  Prague was a very beautiful city.  It many aspects it was similar to Krakow.  We took a walking tour of the Old Town/Jewish district, and a walking tour of the castle area.  There were street food stands set up on the square that we liked to eat lunch from; street food is the best! haha.  We climbed to the top of the Town Hall Tower for a beautiful view of the city, and got to be up there when the bugler played!  The first night we did a pub crawl, and the second night we had a delicious dinner at a steak restaurant.  Honestly, one of my favorite parts of the city was the view of the castle across the river; it was gorgeous!  We were fortunate to have wonderfully sunny weather while we were there, but unfortunate in that it was 95 degrees the whole time, and the Czech people hate ice.  And cold drinks.  We couldn’t even get ice from KFC or Starbucks.  Stephen and I ended up buying icecream bars wrapped in plastic and putting those in our water bottles to make our water cold 😛  But we survived!

After our weekend in Prague, Meaghan and Cailin came back to Krakow and spent Tuesday-Saturday here.  Not much to add; we did all the same stuff as with the parents!  But I really can’t get tired of this city!  Oh yes, and we finally tried Zapiekanka for the first time down in Kazimier (it is a giant piece of french bread with mushrooms and cheese on it, the you put whatever toppings on you want, like a pizza, and then they put ketchup on top).  Disappointing, unfortunately.  

Stephen and I are sad to finally have all of our guests gone!  But it is relaxing 🙂 haha.  This weekend in Krakow is the pierogi festival so we plan on stuffing our faces.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Love and miss everyone!

Btw…we are on the countdown!  Less than 2 months until we return to the USA!

The month of the visitors!

These last couple of weeks have been CRAZY!  My lovely parents arrived Saturday June 29 and left the following Saturday, July 6.  On Monday July 8 I went to Edinburgh, Scotland to visit my best friend Courtney and her boyfriend Brice while they were on vacation (unfortunately Stephen couldn’t take days off of work to make that trip).  I came back on Wednesday the 10th.  Then Sunday morning July 14, Stephen’s mom, dad and little sister Lizzie came!  They left yesterday evening (Monday).  Now on Thursday, two of Stephen’s cousins are flying in.  We will take the overnight train to Prague on Friday, spend the weekend there, and then come back to Krakow for the week!  Sheesh!

The week with my parents was fabulous!  The week started out a little bit chilly, but we had fabulous sunny weather all week (except for the very last night when my parents seriously got stuck in the worst rain downpour any of us have ever seen hahaha).  It was go-go-go from the beginnig since they were only here for a short time.  On Saturday (after their nap; 6-hour jet lag is tough!) we had dinner on the square (The Rynek) and explored the city a little.  On Monday we went to mass (in English) and visited Wawel Castle.  It has one of the best Armory rooms I’ve ever seen!  Then we followed our Rick Steve’s guide book (he’s the man) and did our own tour of the Old Town.  On Monday Stephen took the day off of work and we took a train to Warsaw, Poland.  (Beth-I took a picture of a university there!  Maybe where you will be studying?!)  It is definitely a different type of city than Krakow!  The whole city was literally flattened during WWII.  Some of the city feels like New York, all high-rises and modern.  But then the castle and Old Town have been rebuilt to mimic what it was like originally.  It’s amazing that the people love their city so much to rebuild it to its original splendor!  While they did a nice job, to be truthful, it does feel a little like you are in a theme-park, with the brightly colored buildings that look too “new” and a castle full of artifacts that are replicas from the 1980’s.  But it is a very nice city and we had a good visit!

On Tuesday we met Stephen for lunch at our favorite pizza place by his work.  Then we did a walking tour around Kazimierz and the Jewish Ghetto district of the city.  On Wednesday mom, dad and I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Though not  a”fun” trip, the history is very interesting, and is a place I would recommend everyone to go to once so that we can pay respects to all those suffered and lost their lives.  On Thursday, we went to Wieliczka Salt Mine, and in the afternoon I took a little break while mom and dad went to a Pope John Paul II museum.  That night we attended a 4th of July party with some other American families at Traci and Stephen’s apartment.  Representing the red, white, and blue in Poland!  Friday we took a boat ride on the Vistula River, and just took it a little easy.  Other highlights that we saw were: St. Mary’s Church, the church where Pope John Paul II was bishop, and where he lived, the souvenir market in Cloth Hall (dad got a new shot glass to add to his collection, and mom bought a beautiful hand-painted picture of the Rynek), a bunch of other churches (there are over 140 in the city of Krakow!) and the various street performers that are very entertaining.

I think a highlight for both of them was walking around the square or getting a coffee/beer and people watching.  It is the largest square in Europe, and I really can’t even describe what the atmosphere is like.  But if you are every traveling to Europe, SERIOUSLY consider coming to Krakow.  I know it’s not on most people’s list, but it should be.  Oh yes, and of course we ate a LOT of food.  Our favorite was a restaurant called Pod Wawelem.  It has liter-sized beer, homemade lemon vodka, and really tasty cheese and potato pierogis.  Dad and Stephen split a dish for 2 that says “an assortment of meats.”  They set it on a stand like pizza joints do; it had potatoes, rice, chicken, steak, schnitzel, blood sausage, white sausage, liver, and maybe some other stuff?  You have to see a picture to truly appreciate the size of this meal.  Btw, my mom has all the pictures from our week!

Funny side story: on Friday night we were sitting in the square eating icecream and Stephen and I saw our priest from USC!  He is from Poland, but we were so surprised to run into each other!

The Monday after my parents left I ventured to Edinburgh, Scotland to see Courtney and Brice!  They had a crazy time getting there (involving a delayed and then changed flight, and bags arriving 24 hours they did) but we had a great time!  Brice studied at University of Edinburgh for a year, so we had our own personal tour guide.  We visited the castle, the Scotch Whiskey Experience tour, ate bangers and mash (well, Brice did.  Courtney and I just tasted it haha) saw the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling began writing Harry Potter, took a tour of the Underground City, and hiked up a mountain (ok, it was just a really big hill, but it was a hike!).  And I had my first experience with real Indian food and it was good!  We were lucky enough to be there for the two best days of weather Scotland will probably experience all year; all of the guides were laughing that the weather was “always like this,” sunny and warm!  I’m so happy I got to see them!  And so thankful they let me crash their first two days of vacation 🙂

We had a wonderful visit with Stephen’s family this past week.  I will make sure that he writes about it soon!

If you are still reading this, you’re a trooper.  Thanks 🙂

Polish Life Continues

First, I am supposed to apologize.  I know that people are mad because I have not been keeping up with this blog.  I’m sorry!!!  Here is a nice long post to make up for it 🙂

So I think my last post was about our trip to Italy.  After that, I honestly didn’t have a whole lot of interesting things to write about.  It was rainy and cold for about 3 1/2 weeks which was no bueno.  Stephen and I were able to make it to the park a few times and play some volleyball.  He played more football, kicking butt and taking names 😛 (I promise promise this time I will actually make him write a post soon about football and work!)

I did say that I would share the football story though, so here it is!  One Saturday we decided to walk around the city, and headed in the direction of the river and what looked on a map like a really big park.  While we were walking around the park, we saw a small stadium and went to check it out, because there was a game going on.  I thought at first that it was rugby, but turns out to be American football!  I honestly did not think football existed here.  Stephen was so excited, of course we had to go in and watch.  There were no tickets or anything, so we just wandered in and took a seat at the far end of the field.  We had no idea what we were even watching, but a few plays in I realized the man sitting next to me was speaking English, so I asked him.  The first thing he says (on seeing Stephen’s hat) is, “South Carolina?  I have 2 daughters who go there!”  Score 1!  Come to find out that this guy is American, from Texas, but lives in Prague and used to live in Krakow.  He was the coach of this Krakow football team (The Kings) and now his son is the coach!  He talked to us throughout the game, and Stephen says he would love to be involved if possible.  The guy says of course, and introduces Stephen to his son, also Stephen, at the end of the game.  He showed up for practice on Monday!  I was also introduced to Stephen’s wife, Traci, who has a Women’s Night (Bible study/movie/cooking lesson, etc) every Monday, and invited me to come!  Stephen and Traci have been such a blessing to us here in Krakow; getting Stephen back into football, helping me meet people, even taking me to the grocery store!  They are just great great people 🙂

I am getting along pretty well in every-day stuff.  I can still only say a few basic words in Polish; it is a very difficult language and they speak so quickly!  But a lot of people do speak English, and if they don’t, miming usually gets me by.  Or, if I know something specific I need before I leave the apartment, I Google translate it and write it on a piece of paper to hand the person at the store.  It’s pretty effective 🙂

Stephen and I went to the zoo a couple of weekends ago.  It was small but pretty.  My favorite part though was finding out there are raccoons and skunks at the zoo.  Apparently those animals do not exist in Europe and are exotic enough to be in a zoo hahaha.

Last weekend we traveled to London for a 3-day weekend.  We hit all of the important tourist sites: The London Eye (we met a Gamecock in line!), West Minster Abbey, Shakespear’s Globe Theatre (the replica because the original burned down), the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and the Kensington Gardens.  We did one of the typical red double-decker bus tours, and the pass included a 20minute boat cruise.  The guide on the boat cruise was incredibly informative!  We liked that tour a lot.  Oh, and we stayed at a hotel inside the West Ham United soccer stadium! The box seat rooms are converted into hotel rooms, so your room looks out over the field!  It was a neat experience.  (Honestly, we chose it mostly because hotels are CRAZY expensive in London and this one wasn’t haha.  But it turned out to be a great choice!)  We also saw The Lion King show on stage.  I had seen it with my family when I was in fourth grade, but it was just as great this time around!  The costumes are absolutely amazing.  And though they add a few songs, it follows the story to a T.

As nerdy as this is going to sound, Stephen and I agree that the highlight of our trip was visiting the Harry Potter Studio Tour.  Seriously, if you are a Harry Potter fan you need to go.  It is held in the actual studio that was used to film the movies.  You get to see and learn about many of the sets, the costumes, decorations, props, green screen techniques, real and animatronic animals and magical creatures.  Everything!  You can go inside the Night Bus, take a picture in front of Number 4 Privet Drive, sit on a broomstick in front of a green screen and watch yourself fly through London, see Dumbledore’s study, watch dishes wash themselves in The Burrow, and see just about every prop and costume your Harry Potter-nerdy heart desires 🙂  We had chosen the very latest tour time because we wanted to spend as much of the day seeing other London sites as possible.  We had a fantastic day, but honestly wish we would have chosen an earlier tour time in order to stay longer!  It was just that great.

This week my parents are here!!!  We have been crazy busy already, trying to fit in as much of the beautiful city of Krakow as possible.  Our feet are very tired, our stomachs are very full, and mom has successfully gotten 1 person on the street to smile at her (but I am not convinced the lady was actually Polish.  If you catch someone’s eye walking down the street or whatever, you look away and don’t smile at them because they will NOT smile back.  They will just think you are weird.)  I will be sure to let you know about all of our adventures after they leave on Saturday.  Promise 🙂

P.S.  I am currently in search of my camera cord again, so London pictures are not on facebook yet.  (I really need to keep better track of that thing….)  Sorry!