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Quest for Paska
Easter weekend in Prague was a pretty cool experience and Christine and I had a great time at the Easter markets there but it just wasn't the same without our traditional Mennonite Easter bread Paska. Since this variety of bread originates from Eastern Europe we were hoping we 
might find a suitable alternative to satisfy our tastebuds this Easter but anything we tried in Prague just wasn't right. Almost resigned to having an Easter without Paska we moved on to Krakow Poland in hopes of finding the sweet bread there (because it was still Easter weekend!). Upon arrival we found our hostel pretty quickly in the old town middle close to the train station and once we unpacked we beelined for the Polish Easter Markets happening in the Old Town. My first impression of Krakow were wonderful. We really had only seen the Old town so far with it's medieval pededstrian streets, but the garden encircling the entire old town with the Easter Markets in the huge town square gave us a nice welcome! We didn't find the paska there but we did find alot of other really nice polish handicrafts (painted eggs of course!) and we also found some of the best food I've had this entire trip! I had a huge plate of Polish style potatos, mushrooms and sausage and when eaten on an empty stomach in the cool outdoor evening it was just sooooo good. What a meal! What a reprieve Krakow was from all the hordes of tourists in Prague as well. We arrived at the easter markets and were pleased to see that they weren't overflowing with people, we actually had a chance to take our time and look around. There were other tourists of course but it was just so much more relaxed it instantly gave Krakow huge points over Prague! Our first full day in Prague was spent exploring the aforementioned Old Town, we strolled the 
Plenary Gardens, checked out the University at which Copernicus had studied and of course the Wawel Castle, where all the former Polish Royalty once resided. It being Easter Monday we were feeling a little bad that we were not able to celebrate it properly but as we toured the castle we veered into the castle's Catholic Cathedral and happened upon an Easter service in full swing. The Cathedral itself is tourist attraction so it was quite amazing to walk into this beautifully decorated Cathedral to the sound of a men's choir and the smell of incense. We stayed for awhile to listen to the choir sing but the traditions and customs of the catholics are quite foreign to us so we took a look around the perimeter of the church and decided to keep going. Still was a really cool experience for us! 
There's also a legend in Krakow that there was a fire breathing dragon living in a cave under the castle and as a way to exterminate this beast once and for all, a shepherd put a sheep skin soaked in sulphur outside the entrance to the cave. This of course attracted the dragon's interest and he ate it whole only to discover his mistake a few moments later. He rushed to the river to douse the burning in his throat and drank himself to death. Fairy Tale or truth? I guess we'll never know but hey at least it makes for an interesting story! After checking out the dragon's cave we took a walk through Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter, where over 60 000 jews lived before WWII. 
Today only a couple hundred are still living in Krakow, most of the Jews were sent to Concentration Camps in the War. The next day we actually visited one as well, the biggest one of them all: Auschwitz-Birkenau. The weather that day was appropriately gloomy as we toured around the smaller Auschwitz complex and then the much larger Birkenau complex. What a tragedy...it's really hard to relate to what went on there when I haven't ever experienced anything so horrible in my life but it I think it was still really valuable to visit a place like Auschwitz if only to become educated on the atrocities of war. I think people need reminders like this once and awhile, it really puts things into perspective. 
I think what struck me most was the piles and piles od personal belongings the Nazi's looted from the lugguage the misled Jews and brought with them. Glasses, shoes, brushes, bowls, pots everything of value was taken and sent back to Germany. They valued stuff over human life, kind of twisted. After spending the afternoon there we decided we had seen enough and took a 2 hour twisting winding bus ride back to Krakow. Our now queasy stomachs didn't prevent us from visiting a bakery we had scoped out before we left. We thought we'd try for paska one more time and on our last try we actually had some luck! It wasn't exactly like paska made by my mom or oma, but it was pretty close so we were pretty pumped! Our quest for paska was not in vain! We left Krakow satisfied and headed for Wroclaw (it's not pronounced at all the way it is spelled, a lot of Polish words are that way!). We spent our last night in Poland there. Nice little city but really we just used it as a stopover point en route to the capital of Germany...Berlin!
might find a suitable alternative to satisfy our tastebuds this Easter but anything we tried in Prague just wasn't right. Almost resigned to having an Easter without Paska we moved on to Krakow Poland in hopes of finding the sweet bread there (because it was still Easter weekend!). Upon arrival we found our hostel pretty quickly in the old town middle close to the train station and once we unpacked we beelined for the Polish Easter Markets happening in the Old Town. My first impression of Krakow were wonderful. We really had only seen the Old town so far with it's medieval pededstrian streets, but the garden encircling the entire old town with the Easter Markets in the huge town square gave us a nice welcome! We didn't find the paska there but we did find alot of other really nice polish handicrafts (painted eggs of course!) and we also found some of the best food I've had this entire trip! I had a huge plate of Polish style potatos, mushrooms and sausage and when eaten on an empty stomach in the cool outdoor evening it was just sooooo good. What a meal! What a reprieve Krakow was from all the hordes of tourists in Prague as well. We arrived at the easter markets and were pleased to see that they weren't overflowing with people, we actually had a chance to take our time and look around. There were other tourists of course but it was just so much more relaxed it instantly gave Krakow huge points over Prague! Our first full day in Prague was spent exploring the aforementioned Old Town, we strolled the 
Plenary Gardens, checked out the University at which Copernicus had studied and of course the Wawel Castle, where all the former Polish Royalty once resided. It being Easter Monday we were feeling a little bad that we were not able to celebrate it properly but as we toured the castle we veered into the castle's Catholic Cathedral and happened upon an Easter service in full swing. The Cathedral itself is tourist attraction so it was quite amazing to walk into this beautifully decorated Cathedral to the sound of a men's choir and the smell of incense. We stayed for awhile to listen to the choir sing but the traditions and customs of the catholics are quite foreign to us so we took a look around the perimeter of the church and decided to keep going. Still was a really cool experience for us! 
There's also a legend in Krakow that there was a fire breathing dragon living in a cave under the castle and as a way to exterminate this beast once and for all, a shepherd put a sheep skin soaked in sulphur outside the entrance to the cave. This of course attracted the dragon's interest and he ate it whole only to discover his mistake a few moments later. He rushed to the river to douse the burning in his throat and drank himself to death. Fairy Tale or truth? I guess we'll never know but hey at least it makes for an interesting story! After checking out the dragon's cave we took a walk through Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter, where over 60 000 jews lived before WWII. 
Today only a couple hundred are still living in Krakow, most of the Jews were sent to Concentration Camps in the War. The next day we actually visited one as well, the biggest one of them all: Auschwitz-Birkenau. The weather that day was appropriately gloomy as we toured around the smaller Auschwitz complex and then the much larger Birkenau complex. What a tragedy...it's really hard to relate to what went on there when I haven't ever experienced anything so horrible in my life but it I think it was still really valuable to visit a place like Auschwitz if only to become educated on the atrocities of war. I think people need reminders like this once and awhile, it really puts things into perspective. 
I think what struck me most was the piles and piles od personal belongings the Nazi's looted from the lugguage the misled Jews and brought with them. Glasses, shoes, brushes, bowls, pots everything of value was taken and sent back to Germany. They valued stuff over human life, kind of twisted. After spending the afternoon there we decided we had seen enough and took a 2 hour twisting winding bus ride back to Krakow. Our now queasy stomachs didn't prevent us from visiting a bakery we had scoped out before we left. We thought we'd try for paska one more time and on our last try we actually had some luck! It wasn't exactly like paska made by my mom or oma, but it was pretty close so we were pretty pumped! Our quest for paska was not in vain! We left Krakow satisfied and headed for Wroclaw (it's not pronounced at all the way it is spelled, a lot of Polish words are that way!). We spent our last night in Poland there. Nice little city but really we just used it as a stopover point en route to the capital of Germany...Berlin!
3 comments:
Aren't Polish pronunciations messed up? We did a really poor job of seeing Krakow, and now I'm regretting it. All the Poles we meant on the train told us that Wroclaw [it's pronunced something like Vrotswoff, right?] was a much more interesting city, because it was where orthodox culture met catholic. Unfortunately our experience in Wroclaw was limited to five hours in the groudy train station after 1.5 days of consecutive travel, waiting for a train to Prague. Isn't it crazy that you can be in a place as long as you will be and still not have enough time to see everything?
Hi Laura,
I'm here with Mark and Frank. We went bike shopping today and we had fun.
Frank says: so how's the europeans cousin's doing? frank wants to know if you have found any cute boys out there? he wants to make sure you're having fun.
Mark says: I'm in love with the norco six dual suspension fully loaded drool machine. (now to convince father purchase is matter of life and death)
signing off Caroline, Mark, Frank
=)
hey BEAVIS and hi christine
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