First night in Krakow, Poland

Okay...we survived the plane ride with more head rolling and drool. It was also my first lesson on Ryanair, the airline we had booked all of our flights on within Europe. Why were the tickets inexpensive? Okay, think Southwest Airlines. Take any frills you think of out. Add that your knees touch the seat in front of you, and they charge you for things like a cup of water. And you think they line up early for Southwest?? Ohhh boy. I fondly referred to it after that as "the Herd Airline". It wasn't bad - just full flights and lots of languages!

I woke to hear Jenny chattting away with her seat companions. They were telling her a few words in Polish. She was trying to say them with limited success! I wrote them down phonetically, and every time we asked someone, it sounded different to us!

We landed and I got my second stamp on my passport! The landscape looked like I flew to Columbus! Rolling hills, lots of green. Bartosz and Magda were there to greet us, colleagues of Jenny's. At this time I thought we were just getting a ride from the airport to our hostel.

As it turned out, nobody was at the hostel where we were supposed to stay. Finally we were able to contact the owner via Bartosz's cell phone. Our first save. Couldn't catch a word! We dropped off our stuff, the room seemed nice enough and we were sharing a bath.

Then Bartosz and Magda took us to get zapiekanki since we were hungry. It is a typical food when they go out. We were in the Jewish district. It is kind of like a French Bread pizza, but the ingredients were different. It tasted great as I was starving!

We stayed out talking for a bit and visited a few local pubs. Magda lived a bit out of town and we were tired so we turned in early; Bartosz offered to pick us up in the morning so we said of course!

And that was the end of Poland, day 1.

Our first Polish menu. I know one word!!! Okay, maybe two!

Our first Polish food, Zapiekanki, and friend, Bartosz

Jenny and her friend and colleague, Magda