Our Trip to Kraków, Poland

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Smile!

What if you woke up to a cup of coffee like this every morning?

When Josh opened the lid of his coffee cup, it was literally smiling back at him!

Medellin, Colombia

A few photos from Josh's recent trip to Medillin, Colombia...

Zakopane, Poland

Some photos from Josh's trip to Zakopane, Poland...

Rosendals Trädgård

Today, I finally made it to Rosendals Trädgård, somewhere that has been on "my list" for more than a year.  Once I was there, I kept wondering why I had waited so long.  It was fantastic.  Like a dream land.  Perfection.  Utopia, even.

I was expecting a farmer's market set up, but that wasn't quite the case.  There were a lot of flowers, herbs, and vegetable plants for sale and in the bread shop, they were selling bread, jams, chocolates, nuts, snaps mixes, tea, and of course, ice cream.  All of the jam was from the crop on the grounds and everything was organic.  There was also a restaurant that served 3 different dishes and a lot of desserts.  I had the gazpacho soup and later, some organic strawberry ice cream.

Isn't this just perfect?

My view while enjoying ice cream in the apple orchard:

The walk is just 5 minutes from the tram, but it feels very far away from it all.

Auschwitz

When we were in Poland, we took a 90 minute bus ride to Oświęcim, where the Auschwitz concentration camp is located.

We were on a "mini bus" and the ride was horribly bumpy.  Lucky us, we got stuck on the very last row, so we got the roller coaster feeling for free.  ;)  But at least we had a seat...they actually let people stand for the entire time!  No difference though, there were no seat belts even installed on this bus.

Somehow, Josh managed to snap a photo of me just after the very nice man beside me smashed my toes with his toe curled alligator skin shoes.  Yeah, I was in pain!!

Although I didn't take a lot of photos while we were at Auschwitz, here are the few that I did take.

After studying about this camp several times throughout my schooling, reading many books about it, watching several movies, visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., walking through the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, and touring the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, I thought that I was prepared for what we would see at Auschwitz.  That was not the case at all.  There is nothing like standing in this place.  It's not something that I can explain and it is not something that can be felt through photographs.

Loot from Poland

We had some time for shopping at the market inside the Cloth Hall when we were in Krakow and picked up some things that I am really happy with.  The first is this wooden bowl.  We don't know what it will be used for yet, but we both just had to have it.  It is actually quite large and would make a great fruit basket or would also look good just sitting on a table.

We found a store called "The American Bookstore" so naturally we had to visit it.  They had loads of books in English and the prices, like everything else in Poland, were really low.  Had we had more space in our luggage, we would have come home with a lot more books, but these are the ones we settled on.

Now, back to the Cloth Hall market.  Wooden boxes like these were everywhere and I just fell in love with them.  It was hard to decide on which one should come home with me, but this one won out.  Again, no idea what I will do with this, but it was just so unique.

Amber was also a popular item at the market.  Amber jewelry was everywhere.  I picked up these cute little earrings.

Josh has wanted a wooden chess set for as long as I can remember, and they were everywhere at the market.  I absolutely insisted that he buy one of these.  It is huge, so we were a bit concerned about it fitting in our luggage, but we made it work.  It is a gorgeous set.

Strangely enough, we didn't buy the two things that we buy in every country we visit - a scarf and a Christmas ornament.  Looks like we will have to make another trip back to Poland sometime soon.  ;)

Kraków, Poland

We just returned from Kraków, Poland (Cracow in English).  Josh spent the week in a Polish town about 2 hours (by car) away and at the end of his meetings, he traveled to Kraków and so did I so that we could spend a few days exploring the city together.  We actually arrived at the hotel within minutes of each other; it was perfect timing!

It was a great trip and I am sorting through photos and stories now.  I will share them in the next few days.

Josh in Malmö, Sweden

Josh is travelling to Malmö today and will be back this evening!  The quick flight there makes is possible to do the trip in one day without an overnight stay.  Nice!

Visby, Sweden

Josh just returned from Visby, Sweden and had a chance to take just a couple of photos while he was there.  Visby is the only proper "town" on the island of Gotland, where we spent a week last July on vacation.  Josh  stayed in a great place right on the water and got to enjoy these views from his balcony...

Gorgeous...

A group photo of Josh and his colleagues...