We're not keeping up on this blog thing very well!

Wow it's been a whirlwind here! We've mostly been exploring the fun of Poland!

Krakow has the largest Market Square of all of Europe. We've spent most of our free time at or around Market Square. You can eat, shop, hang out, people watch, see clowns, people dressed as statues, or about anything there!

There is an area in the center of Market Square where people sell goods that they have made or 'procured'. It's called the Cloth Hall or Sukiennice I can't pronounce it :) Some of the things you can find in there are carved wood pieces (like chess sets, wind chimes, and boxes), wooden toys, handmade jewelry, and tourist tshirts. Below is a picture of the cloth hall from the inside and out. The building is quite ornate. I'm hoping that on date night tomorrow David and I will have time to get some good pictures of the details.

From Krakow, Poland

When David was in Krakow in February, he brought home a chess set for Brennan. Since then Jackson has taken an active interest in Chess. We promised he could buy one while we were here. We made that purchase on Saturday:

From Krakow, Poland

Jackson is playing chess (and other games using the chess set) daily since then. Best $8 spent so far!

Under the market square is a museum where archaeologist have excavated to learn more about the people, culture, architecture in previous generations. The museum was amazing. It was interactive. There were glass floors so you could see where they had dug. They had rebuilt the buildings that crafts people had worked in such as blacksmiths and tanner. They also demonstrated how they could move large amounts of goods using a two wheeled wagon. There was a 3d depiction of the city as it was then. There was a touch screen of skull as it had changed over the years. There was also a hallway you could walk down to see a building wall that had been excavated:

From Krakow, Poland

I think that what we like most about Market Square is that it is great for hanging out! There are a ton of great restaurants, and they have fun people to entertain! There are people that dress up like a dragon - which is the symbol for Krakow based on an old legend. They also have clowns on stilts and street dancers.

From Krakow, Poland

Jackson also fell in love with this street performer below. He was a statue - standing perfectly still. David and I asked Jackson if he was a statue or a man. Jackson walked up to the man and spoke to the man. Jackson came back to us and said he wasn't talking! I wanted to get a picture of him speaking to the statue so I asked him to go back and try again! So he did, and he dropped a coin in the man's bucket. The man suddenly came to life and started juggling. He put on a great show - dropping his pins and asking Jackson for help picking them up again - interactive and fun.

From Krakow, Poland

Next up? I'll tell you about our visit to the museum at the salt mines - it was amazing!

We've arrived in Poland!

Warning: I usually like my blog entries to be accompanied by a photo, but we've been remiss in taking shots of our tired, worn out, night of the living dead look in our 18 hour journey to get to our apartment in Poland.

For those of you just joining, we are spending a month in Poland. A lot of people ask, Why? It definitely was not on my top 10 list of places to visit in Europe! David's work has an office here. He wanted to do some work there and I can work from here. We thought it would be a great opportunity for Brennan to see for himself how another country operates day to day - so here we are!

If you followed our trip to Australia, you may remember when Jackson tried to skip the immigration line and just run right through. We were fortunate that nothing exciting like that happened this time. We did have quite a journey here!

Our journey consisted of 3 plane rides, about 7 hours of airport 'waiting' and 15 hours 'in the air'. Despite the crabbing we did from time to time, I'm proud of the way that we handled it. It's not easy being so close together, with no sleep, for that long.

An odd thing did happen while we were in Charlotte. While we were in line waiting to get a boarding pass David, Brennan and I were talking. Jackson was standing nearby and some guy reached out and started rubbing his hair. It's so bizzare. is that normal, and I missed the memo? You may recall when we were in NZ some woman wanted to take photographs with Jackson.

A couple remarks about service while we're here. TSA at the Dallas airport - I was stricken by how friendly they were. One of them high fived Jackson. Another pulled his backpack with his stuffed dog hanging out and was like 'wonder whose backpack this is'. One made a joke about David's shirt... They were all real nice. I can imagine how difficult there job is - being the bad guy all day, enforcing rules that people WANT to break. It was a great start to our journey.

(well the woman at the US Airways desk wasn't a great start but she wasn't miserable enough for me to give you all the details)

I also HAVE to tell you about Lufthansa airlines. It's interesting - the night before we left, I saw something on TV that said people would rather deal with the IRS than an airline. Brennan asked if that were true of David and I - I told him my opinion was that flying was a means to an end. Then I flew Lufthansa. Every person I interacted with was SUPER nice. It seemed like their personal mission was to make sure you were enjoying your flight. I was on the floor searching for crayons Jackson dropped, and someone came to ask if I wanted them to do it. REALLY? No, I'm already down here. But thanks! It is the first time I've every had good airplane food. And they served "lunch" on our 75 minute flight from Munich to Krakow. After dinner, they stopped to offer an after dinner drink. Their planes are more comfortable than any United Stated (AA, US-Airlines, Continental, etc) flight I've been on. More legroom, great entertainment in the seat back, good access to the bathrooms. Overall great flights. Oh and in the waiting areas at the terminals for their flights - they have free coffee. How much less cranky would YOU be when your plane was delayed if you had a cafe latte in hand? I'm just sayin...

As far as first impressions... the buildings here have quite a bit of character. We had a gorgeous dinner last night on the cheap. There is a lot of green - green grass green trees, etc. I look forward to being able to explore!

Now we all suffer from jetlag, stiffness, and trying to pull it all together. Tomorrow we have an appointment with Jackson's Nanny in the city square - I'm sure I'll get some pictures then!