Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007

So Saturday morning, I woke up nice and early. Olivia was in the shower, I lazed about in bed for a bit, and then I decided to look out the window, to admire the view before getting ready for the day.

Oh yeah! It had snowed! It was very exciting and made for a lovely, lovely day. We got ready, had breakfast (which I will show you), and headed out for the day trip to Wadowice - where Karol Wojtyla grew up - and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska - where he would visit.

Breakfast usually consisted of: bread with (unidentifyable berry) jam, cheese, hard boiled egg, pickles, other cheese, kielbasa, hams/salamis. Honestly, this first breakfast was the "try everything (ish)" meal, and then I defaulted to the bread and jam for 4 days. All good in the 'hood.

Driving past Wawel Castle/Cathedral on the way to Wadowice

Wadowice was a very quaint little town, now famous for its "Pope cakes" (Kremulka? ... I don't know how to spell it). At the main square is the school where Karol Wojtyla was educated and the Basilica of the Presentation of Our Lady, where he was baptized / catechized / spiritualized. The Wojtyla family apartment is right next door to the Basilica, on the second floor; it is now a JP2 museum.

The school

JP Statue with tons and tons of youth, as we found all over Polish religious sites

Our group waiting to go into the apartment/musem (Clockwise: Fr. Stan, Mary Manchester, Olivia, Dan, Sandy, Sylvia, Christina, Millie, Bob, Rena's hair, begging gypsy. Not pictured: me, Marty (Tracy), Al, Maryland Mary)

Entrance to the building

Entrance to the Wojtyla Family's second floor apartment

Dan found a Polish wife! I was quite amused... this girl's mother was very enthusiastic about shipping her off to Almost Oklahoma, TX with Dan. My favorite part of the exchange was when Mom was saying, "oh, yeah, she's a very good cook," and the girl got this completely aghast look on her face and said, "Nie!!" ...I guess she doesn't cook.

Basilica of the Presentation of Our Lady

Our Lady of Perpetual Help (+Jesus) where KW/JP would pray every single day when he lived in Wadowice

The baptismal font (read this) - I could not get a clear shot of this if my life depended on it.

St. Therese altar

Pretty little side chapel...

..which turned out to be a reliquary with Padre Pio and St. Maximilian Kolbe (...and someone else. Polish is hard to read!)

We left Wadowice and went to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, which was the alternate pilgrimage spot (to Jerusalem) in the 1600s when Christians couldn't go to the Holy Land (Kalwaria = Calvary). My understanding is that JP would go there on retreat as a youth / young adult. It was so awesome, this big hilltop forest around a cute little monastery.

In the evening, we went back to Krakow for a night on the town. We walked through the Jagiellonian University (where KW/JP taught) to the "Old" Square and found a cute little restaurant to eat in. There were two Sephoras there, not even 1 mile apart, and I did not set foot in either, thank you very much!

University of Krakow

Entering the Square - bear with my fuzzy pictures... when I don't use a flash, my My First Digital Camera takes 4-7 seconds to take a picture & I have a pulse, which leads to shakiness

St. Mary's cathedral

Yummy... cheese pie. I promise this, too, was better than it looks. Pastry filled with Georgian(?) cheese, covered with roasted peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and more cheese. Yummers.

...