We walked right into the airport, picked up our baggage, and were unleashed on the streets. No "Poland" stamp in my passport. The streets, however, were somewhat rural, and we ended up just taking a taxi into the city, rather than trying to jump right into Polish culture by hopping a bus. I am so thankful that I was not in the middle or front seats for our cab ride, or I would have either thrown up on the people beside me or possibly died of a heart attack. Eastern European cab drivers do not mess around. I'm pretty sure we almost died at least a dozen times.
We checked into our hostel, Goodbye Lenin. Highly recommended! It was clean, the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful, and overall it might be the best hostel I've stayed at (though 2GO4 in Brussels is a close second).
My lovely roommate Jennifer showing off our room. We booked a 4 bedroom so we had it all to ourselves, and shared a bathroom with a 12-room dorm. Getting into the bathroom in the morning was interesting (read:impossible), but there was another bathroom by reception that was always open, so it wasn't so bad.
After dropping off our bags, we were hungry, so we asked the girl in reception for a recommendation for traditional Polish food and set off.
Took some gloomy, foggy pictures on the way:
Don't worry guys, we ordered a TON of food:
(this was only our first round)
Obviously, I got pierogies
Jesse and Jennifer liked the first crepe thing so much they both ordered another. I was such a fan of the pierogies that for dessert I ordered STRAWBERRY PIEROGIES OMG. My mouth is watering just at the thought of these:
After eating we decided to walk home.
Lia and I are super mature.
We saw a shrine on the outside of a church
In all honestly, I have no idea what this is. At the corner of Market Square:
On our way home we stumbled upon a church!
And we found out that there was a concert that night at the church! Student tickets were ~$10USD, so we decided to check it out.
Not the best classical music I've been witness too, but definitely a great experience.
Afterward, we headed back to the hostel for a traditional Polish drink. I won't even pretend to remember the Polish name, but it was vodka, with what looked like a giant blade of grass in it, mixed with apple juice. It was soooo good. While we were enjoying our drinks at the hostel, I overhead a kid talking about voting.
Him: "Yeah, there were a few issues on the ballot in my state, namely medical marijuana and stem cell research--"
Me: "Oh hey, you live in MI?"
Him: "Yeah!"
Me: "Where in? I'm from MI too!"
Him: "Near Detroit."
Me: "Like where?"
Him: "Grosse Pointe?"
SERIOUSLY. I bumped into a kid from the Woods in freaking POLAND. He graduated GP North '05, I was South '05. Small. World.
After we a few drinks, Jennifer and I were ready to eat again, so we headed to the corner of our block for kebab. I do not understand why kebab isn't as popular in the states as it is in Europe, because I could seriously eat it every. day. Lia and Jesse went on a quest for candy bars, insisting that they would meet us back to the restaurant soon. They weren't there by the time we finished eating, so what did Jennifer and I do?
We got gelato. In Poland. In November. At night. It was SO COLD. And of course we waited like 20 minutes on a street corner for Jesse and Lia, who if I recall correctly did not even find the candy bar they were seeking.
Once we all met up, we headed back to the hostel for a fairly early night, because our tour to Auschwitz was picking us up at 8am the following morning.
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