Congratulations Danny on the 50 mile run!! That's spectacularly awesometastic. I enjoyed the details in his blog post. I think I would feel like puking after eating all that green goo, too.
I saw the pictures from the Labor Day trip up Brisky Canyon. Those are the things you miss most when abroad. It was fun to talk to y'all while you were there. Grandma and Grandpa have a huge fan in Barbara. They started sending her the Currit Chronicles, and she makes us translate every word, even the parts about flowers or people she doesn't know.
We went to Krakow last weekend to meet up with friends from the History department at UW. One was in Lithuania doing research, the other in Prague on vacation. I'd been the Krakow a couple times already, but always for real quick, sort of in-transit visits, so I decided I'd take the chance to go again. Agata and I took the train down on Friday morning from Lodz, and then I dragged her and one of my visiting friends to Auschwitz, for what was supposed to be just a short look to cross it off my to-do list, but ending up being about as nasty as a trip to a concentration camp sounds. It was a strange combo: to get there, we had to take a half-full bus that meandered through every village on the way, doing 70 kilometers in about 20 hours. Once there, there were Disneyland-size crowds everywhere. We did the tour in reverse to avoid having to hire a guide. Auschwitz II - Birkenau is striking in its immensity, giant fields of barb-wire, guard towers and barracks. The main camp actually looks like a pleasant little town. Except the buildings are full of human remains and gas chambers. Very disturbing.
On the way back, about 100 people were in line for the 30 spots on the second-to-last bus out of there. We decided to throw delicacy aside and push our way through to the front. Agata led the way. She can be quite the fighter.
Krakow itself is straight out of a fairy-tale, an extremely charming medieval European city. I had somehow missed that before, probably because I had insisted we head out to the post-war Socialist-built districts. We had a great time just doing touristy things with my friends, visiting churches and museums, stopping frequently in quirky cafes and bars, and eating delicious pierogi. We stayed in a hostel that had the benefit of costing only 10 dollars a night and being located right in the old town, and the downside of being located right above a karaoke bar. We didn't get much sleep.
We're back in Lodz now, trying to buckle down to work. I'm trying to wrap my head around doing a dissertation, make connections and explore archives, apply for future funding, improve my Polish, and study for my exams. In reality the days seem to blow by before I get through a tenth of that agenda. Agata is plowing through her dissertation, making steady progress in my opinion, but frustrated a bit herself. On Friday we will head to Poznan for our friend's wedding. I'm quite excited to see a real Polish wedding. It's going to be in a castle of some sort. We'll also have a bit of time to see Poznan itself, which is supposed to be quite nice.
2 comments:
so fun that Barbara is enjoying the chronicle. Does she like swallows? It's good to hear from you, Travis. I especially like to hear the details
Good to hear from you Trav. We're missing you guys here in sunny Seattle!
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