Goodbye, everyone
I'm leaving tomorrow, at 5:40. For the next two weeks I'll be a student at JU (Jagiellonian University), the place where tons of cool people like Copernicus went to school. Wish me luck, I forgot just about all the Polish I used to know, so now I'm nothing more than a dumb American. I might be doing updates through myspace, so, yeah, that would be the place to look (http://www.myspace.com/pooptabouli). Hopefully while in Europe, I won't encounter a creepy man who eats salad with his fingers on a train or loose women who ultimately drug me and take me and my friends to be brutally murdered somewhere. But, if I do, you can all count on the fact that I'll saw their fingers off and kill them in a toilet. Nah, I'll be ok, I'm not staying in any hostels.
Hopefully I have some epiphany on life while I'm out on my own. Or at the very least, I take a much needed break from the mundane.
Poland 2006: First Hand Experience: Trip Itinerary
Attention: this program is subject to change
Day #0 May 30
Departure from Detroit 5:40 p.m. (Northwest).
Day# 1 May 31 - Wednesday
Arrival in Amsterdam: 7:35 a.m.
Leave Amsterdam: 9:20 a.m.
Arrival in Warsaw: 11:15 a.m.
Arrival in Krakow - (approximately) 4:00 p.m.
Transfer to the Piast dormitory
Rest
Getting to know the town: walk around downtown and dinner
Day 2 Thursday, June 01
Tourist program: Old Town (organized by the Jagiellonian University School of Polish Language)
Lunch
Lecture#1: Everyday Life under Communism
Streetcar trip to Nowa Huta. Optional: visit to the Nowa Huta Museum
Aesthetics of social realism
Day#3 Friday, June 02
Tourist program: Wawel (organized by the Jagiellonian University School of Polish Language)
Lunch
Lecture #2: Poland after 1989
Meeting with Polish students: what do we know about Poland and the US?
Days #4 and 5 Saturday, June 03 and 04
Bus trip to Zakopane
We will be staying at Anna Maria
Day 1: a trip in the mountains: cable car ride to Kasprowy Wierch, a visit to Chocholow (mountain architecture) or: a trip to Morskie Oko.
Dinner with music (as a group).
Day 2: visiting Zakopane with a guide. "Zakopianski" style: Willa pod Jedlami on Koziniec and Jaszczurowka Chapel. Historical Peksowy Brzyzek Cemetery; cable car rides to Gubalowka and Butorowy Wierch to explore the mountains. Life style, arts and foods of gorale.
Return to Krakow in the evening
Day#6 Monday, June 5
Lecture #3: A brief survey of Polish literature
Lunch
Visit to Rydlowka Museum ("Mloda Polska") with a guide.
Dinner and time for your own town exploring (suggestions: movies, shopping centers, and students' clubs). Any traces of Americanization of Polish culture? Be ready for the next morning briefing on your findings.
Day#7 Tuesday, June 6
Briefing on your previous night explorations
Lunch
Lecture #4: Polish Jews and Polish - Jewish relations
A walk around Kazimierz. Remu cemetery and the Jewish museum.
Dinner in "Chlopskie Jadlo": "typical" Polish fare (?) (or a Jewish restaurant)
Day#8 Wednesday, June 7
Bus trip to Oswiecim/Auschwitz
Briefing upon the return to Krakow
Day #9 Thursday, June 8
Briefing
Czartoryski Museum
Exploring Krakow on your own: talking to people in the streets, taking streetcars or buses, (maybe taking the full loop of a chosen streetcar and reporting on observations: behavior of people on the streetcar, points of interest outside).
Other possible destinations: other museums, historical mounds (Kosciuszko, Krak), botanical garden, cafe Jama Michalika, Rakowicki Cemetery.
Briefing
Day#10 Friday, June 09
Lecture #5: Poland and the EU
Lunch
Visit to Wieliczka Salt Mine
Day #11 Saturday, June 10
Visit to the Ethnographical Museum.
Polish folk art
Lunch
A visit to Massolit Books (run by American expatriates).
Day 12 Sunday June 11
A bus trip to Czestochowa, the most famous religious sanctuary in Poland ("Black Madonna"), Zelazowa Wola (maybe) and to Warsaw.
Day #13 Monday, June 12
Program: visiting downtown with a guide, visit to the Polish Parliament (Sejm) and to Lazienki Park and Palace.
Day #14 Tuesday, June 13
Packing and departure at 12:05 from the Warsaw Airport
Our dorm in Krakow
This is it, too
Hotel in Zakopane
(can't wait to stay here)
Hotel in Warsaw
(eh, kinda dumpy, Holiday-Innish)
Well, I guess all that's left to say is ta-ta, so long, and thanks for all the fish. I'll be back on June 13th.
Hopefully I have some epiphany on life while I'm out on my own. Or at the very least, I take a much needed break from the mundane.
Poland 2006: First Hand Experience: Trip Itinerary
Attention: this program is subject to change
Day #0 May 30
Departure from Detroit 5:40 p.m. (Northwest).
Day# 1 May 31 - Wednesday
Arrival in Amsterdam: 7:35 a.m.
Leave Amsterdam: 9:20 a.m.
Arrival in Warsaw: 11:15 a.m.
Arrival in Krakow - (approximately) 4:00 p.m.
Transfer to the Piast dormitory
Rest
Getting to know the town: walk around downtown and dinner
Day 2 Thursday, June 01
Tourist program: Old Town (organized by the Jagiellonian University School of Polish Language)
Lunch
Lecture#1: Everyday Life under Communism
Streetcar trip to Nowa Huta. Optional: visit to the Nowa Huta Museum
Aesthetics of social realism
Day#3 Friday, June 02
Tourist program: Wawel (organized by the Jagiellonian University School of Polish Language)
Lunch
Lecture #2: Poland after 1989
Meeting with Polish students: what do we know about Poland and the US?
Days #4 and 5 Saturday, June 03 and 04
Bus trip to Zakopane
We will be staying at Anna Maria
Day 1: a trip in the mountains: cable car ride to Kasprowy Wierch, a visit to Chocholow (mountain architecture) or: a trip to Morskie Oko.
Dinner with music (as a group).
Day 2: visiting Zakopane with a guide. "Zakopianski" style: Willa pod Jedlami on Koziniec and Jaszczurowka Chapel. Historical Peksowy Brzyzek Cemetery; cable car rides to Gubalowka and Butorowy Wierch to explore the mountains. Life style, arts and foods of gorale.
Return to Krakow in the evening
Day#6 Monday, June 5
Lecture #3: A brief survey of Polish literature
Lunch
Visit to Rydlowka Museum ("Mloda Polska") with a guide.
Dinner and time for your own town exploring (suggestions: movies, shopping centers, and students' clubs). Any traces of Americanization of Polish culture? Be ready for the next morning briefing on your findings.
Day#7 Tuesday, June 6
Briefing on your previous night explorations
Lunch
Lecture #4: Polish Jews and Polish - Jewish relations
A walk around Kazimierz. Remu cemetery and the Jewish museum.
Dinner in "Chlopskie Jadlo": "typical" Polish fare (?) (or a Jewish restaurant)
Day#8 Wednesday, June 7
Bus trip to Oswiecim/Auschwitz
Briefing upon the return to Krakow
Day #9 Thursday, June 8
Briefing
Czartoryski Museum
Exploring Krakow on your own: talking to people in the streets, taking streetcars or buses, (maybe taking the full loop of a chosen streetcar and reporting on observations: behavior of people on the streetcar, points of interest outside).
Other possible destinations: other museums, historical mounds (Kosciuszko, Krak), botanical garden, cafe Jama Michalika, Rakowicki Cemetery.
Briefing
Day#10 Friday, June 09
Lecture #5: Poland and the EU
Lunch
Visit to Wieliczka Salt Mine
Day #11 Saturday, June 10
Visit to the Ethnographical Museum.
Polish folk art
Lunch
A visit to Massolit Books (run by American expatriates).
Day 12 Sunday June 11
A bus trip to Czestochowa, the most famous religious sanctuary in Poland ("Black Madonna"), Zelazowa Wola (maybe) and to Warsaw.
Day #13 Monday, June 12
Program: visiting downtown with a guide, visit to the Polish Parliament (Sejm) and to Lazienki Park and Palace.
Day #14 Tuesday, June 13
Packing and departure at 12:05 from the Warsaw Airport
Our dorm in Krakow
This is it, too
Hotel in Zakopane
(can't wait to stay here)
Hotel in Warsaw
(eh, kinda dumpy, Holiday-Innish)
Well, I guess all that's left to say is ta-ta, so long, and thanks for all the fish. I'll be back on June 13th.