All the way to Friday!

By now, the anticipation was building...the city was consumed by the Papal visit, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

I was reading about it and learning that this wasn't just any old visit made by the Pope himself. Pope John Paul was from Poland and dearly, dearly loved by the incredibly faithful Catholics that inhabit Poland. He is very missed and this is the first time the new Pope has visited since Pope John Paul's passing. Additionally, the new Pope is from Germany. Germany and Poland were not always the best of friends - think WWII, Nazi Germany, concentration camps, etc. This was better than history - this was witnessing it for myself!

So the buzz of the preparations and the news cameras filming downtown and the road closures and the anticipation...you could FEEL it in the air!

We awoke Friday morning to Bartosz' cell phone again. He insisted that we get up and go! So much to see and do, and we had to change hostel locations.

We did that first - we went from a private room with a shared bath, to a very shared, very co-ed dorm-style room with bunk beds and interesting folks. Our first night was an 8 bed room. We arrived with our suitcases (thank you Lord for helping me pack light!) and tried not to disturb the still-sleeping international guests. This hostel was located downtown, exactly 2 blocks from where the Pope was staying!

And then...we spent the first half of Friday seeing the rest of what Krakow had to offer...shopping in the marketplace, the large castle, dodging raindrops...and running into the Italians that we had met in the Salt Mine, of all the crazy things!

The second half of the day was a much more sobering experience...