Ugggggh....

This is the part where I'm supposed to tell you about the beauty of the castle and town square in Krackow, but really, today, I just want to stay in my room. Something (finally) in eastern Europe caught up with my digestive system (ice in the mojitos? brushing my teeth in Krackow? that wierd cottage cheese in the continental breakfast that comes like sliced bread? that other thing in the continental breakfast that looked like pate wrapped in fat, which I knew while I was eating that I shouldn't be?) Who knows? It's 1:30 now, hopefully I'l decent enough later to get something in -- there are these famous salt mines outside of Krackow that sound definately worth a visit. (An entire Roman Cathloic church, below ground and made of salt!). We shall see.

OK -- so here's what happened before the nastiness set in. Krackow is very lovely -- they did a very smart thing that has had a bad side effect. The Old Town (with the cobblestone streets, the 500 year old buildings, everything absolutely streaming "Europe!") is seperated from the rest of Krackow by a block-wide park that rings the whole thing. Luckily, this keeps nasty modern architecture from encroaching and keeps the sitelines within the old town pretty. However, it also corrals in the tourists. The tourists know where to stay and the pizza joints, Chez McDo's, and endless exchange places know where they'll be...so it becomes like a tourist Disneyland.

I hate that.

That being said, the castle, the Wawel was very nice...it gives Prague castle a run for it's money. (Quick pronouncation note -- W's are prounced like V's, so the castle is Vah-vel. Vodka, for instance, is written wodka, but prounced the same. Beer is piwo, which keeps things easy.) Set up on a hill, the castle includes the residence and a cathedral. The cathedral is pretty ostentatious -- very little Jesus and Mary, lots of huge statues of archbishops and popes. And gaudy -- you can see the orgins 300 years ago of the bad eastern european clothing, hair and makeup styles of today.

In the crypt, I saw the tomb of Leelee Sobieski's great great great great grandfather, and the tomb of Thadeus Coskusiko...who did something for the US, because there's that awful bridge on the BQE named after him.

That night, I had Ukrianian food. I ordered the Borscht with egg, which was a nice touch, but I miss my Vesekla.