There’s a Flickr set here with plenty of Krakow pictures.

Quoth Vincent:

But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is? It’s the little differences. I mean they got the same shit over there that they got here, but it’s just– just there it’s a little different.

Example.

Europe is great, but Europe is easy.

Europe is comfortable. It’s relatively predictable. It’s orderly. People play accordion in the streets. There are hipsters. Stag-dos. (Bachelor parties, in US parlance) Unlike the beloved smoke-belching, girl-whistling-at, stop-in-the-middle-of-the-road combis of Lima, public transportation arrives on time and always stops at a station. Historic, beautiful, and not exactly piquing my interest as much as places that are more different than what I’m used to back home. Too easy. Where’s the WTF factor here?

Inevitably, I find myself comparing my experience here to South America. On November 1st, more than a month ago, I wrote this:

I genuinely miss South America and find myself comparing Poland to Colombia and Peru. If you told me right now that I had to pick a place other than the United States to live the rest of my life, it wouldn’t be Poland. It’s so… European. I’ve actually caught myself getting emotional several times about Colombia and Peru. In the back of my mind I’ll make up schemes to move to Bogota and live for an extended period of time. Maybe go be a combi driver in Lima. I walk around the streets here and think in Spanish. I still type “jaja” instead of “haha” when I chat online with friends at home.

I’m certainly not saying I’m ungrateful. Obviously, if it was a Friday afternoon in Indianapolis and you asked me, “Hey, so do you want to stick around Indy and go to the Living Room Lounge for the weekend or should we head to Europe?” it wouldn’t even be a question. I love the LRL, but shut up and let’s get the hell out of here.

Basically, Krakow has been good, but Europe just isn’t that different or challenging enough for me with Peru in my rear view and India waiting around the corner.

I know, baby. You dig it the most.

Faces Trump Places.

In two days, I will have been gone for exactly six months. Half the trip! As my trip continues, I notice that I am learning more about what is important to me as I travel. That would be the memories of the people, people.

In fact, the entire time I’ve been in Poland, I haven’t gone to a museum or any sort of paid-admission tourist place. Nary a one. That’s despite the fact that I’ve had ample time and opportunity. I don’t think I went to a museum the whole time I was in Colombia either. It just doesn’t seem to float my boat or find my lost remote. The museums I did go to in Peru were fun because I went with Gaby. Yet I don’t feel jilted, bad about it, or like I’m missing anything. On the contrary, I’ve walked miles and miles all over the place, had countless conversations with people, made friends, and had some great experiences.

Places are fine. They’re the basis and structure for a trip from the get-go. Sometimes those places are even quite awesome (such as the Dead Cow Head market in Cuzco, the pirate DVD market in Lima, or Pablo Escobar’s estate). I can walk around them, take pictures of them, observe them, and compare them to what I know. It’s certainly valuable to me. What I realize, though, is that when I look back at those pictures, they remind me more of the people that I met wherever I was than the place I stood when I took the picture.

I think that’s it for me. I’m less motivated by seeing museums or sights to learn about culture than I am by meeting people and making friends that actually live in those different cultures. History, locations, and events are all culturally important and interesting. However, the memorable things usually happen when someone else is there with you. Present the place and come with the culture, but explain it through the eyes of a local.

This wasn’t a conscious decision I made before leaving; it has happened organically by the simple day-to-day choices I’ve made. Works for me. Hell, I’m balls deep in Gidget over it.

Quick note: I’m skeptical that these observations are that interesting to others (anybody care?), but I am personally both glad and intrigued to see my trip, my understanding of it, and my intentions continually evolving.

The Polish Acting Students, Joanna & The Dead Teddy Bear, Pseudo Birthdays, and Polish Girl Quentin Tarantino.

I have gotten to spend time with a gaggle of acting students from the Lart Studio acting school in Krakow, which includes the previously mentioned blues singer, Joanna, and flowing Bartek. Quite the rowdy and predictably dramatic bunch in general, but fun to hang out with. Half the time when I’m the sole English-speaker hanging out with such a group of Pols, I just smile and try to figure out what the hell they’re talking about. It’s essentially impossible.

The group went to a small Jewish bar called Szynk. It’s a cozy candle-lit spot that I’ve been to a few times in Kazimierz. Apparently it’s the only place in Krakow to get the amber beer “Krakowskie.” The owners are exceedingly nice and make excellent soup. Everything was going well until someone peed on the floor in the bathroom and the group got a serious talking-to by the owner. Granted, they were being obnoxious and deserved it. To wit:

The Polish Acting Students Sing from Nathan Shipley on Vimeo.

The Teddy Bear Murder Mystery Flick You Will Never See

I made a teddy bear murder mystery movie with Joanna. An entire ten-minute movie with my point and shoot Canon. It is ridiculous. I’m not posting it on the internet. Even by old Toilet Bowl Productions standards, it is crap. Tedious, nonsensical crap. That said, it was damn fun to make and it’s funny to at least two people.

While I won’t post the video, I will post some images because I still find the premise that I made a teddy bear murder mystery movie with a Polish blues singer that features teddy bears held up by strings walking around, wielding knives, and killing people and bears to be on the awesome side of things.

The truly impressive thing is the number of acting students that have seen this abomination and still want to make a film with me. There was even a somewhat serious discussion of a plot for a second film, but it very rapidly devolved in to an existential avant-garde mind-screw that I had no interest in pursuing. Probably would have been a huge hit a the Polish Film Festival, though.

Birthdays are not enough for the Pols

In Poland, a person celebrates both their birthday and their “name day.” The name day is like another birthday, except everyone in the country with the same name as you is celebrating it on the same day. Though I still can’t really pronounce his name, I was lucky enough to get invited by Andrzej (pictured right, holding up a gift t-shirt he received) to attend his name day celebration with a bunch of his high school friends. Good crowd. Hold their vodka well. Certainly more mature than the acting students.

After me and five guys met at Andrzej’s apartment, which is directly above my apartment, we went to a bar in Kazimierz with beach-themed decorations and sand for floors to meet the whole group. I then got invited by Polish Girl Quentin Tarantino and her friend to go to another place. It was a new cafe that was opening that night and had VIP-only invites and an open bar. Happy times.

Polish Girl Quentin Tarantino?

Yes. She is a psychology student and the closest female approximation I have seen to a younger version of the famed film director. It’s pretty common for me to see foreigners that remind me of people back home. “Oh, look! There goes Peruvian Lance Rider!” This one was a first, though. Resemblance? You be the judge:

From Midwest to Budapest.

Next stop, Budapest. I’m excited and ready to go. I went to the train station yesterday and bought my ticket. Heading out tomorrow around noon. I’ve heard good things, though my initial idea is to only be there from somewhere between four and seven days. I’ll figure out where I’m going next at some point later. Plenty of choices and plenty of reader requests to think about. The main push will be to get to Constantinople, though.

Reader Requests

Speaking of reader requests, I am delighted with responses I’ve gotten thus far. I’m pursuing these and hope that you will continue to submit ideas as they come to you.

More pictures of Polish Girl Quentin Tarantino, the Teddy Bear movie, and other goings-on in the Flickr set.

Okay, people. Welcome to your chance to tell me what to do. Time to stop reading and start talking. Here’s the deal:

I read a great five-part article yesterday by Kelly McEvers on Slate about how she found a real pirate in Indonesia. It took her three weeks of hanging out with shady ex-pirates to finally connect with him. It’s a good story. Inspirational, too.

As I read through it, I thought, “That could be me. I want to do things like that. I could go find pirates. Why the hell not?”

“But, Nathan, what does this have to do with me,” you ask?

I want you to come up with ideas for what you’d like to see me do in the coming months.

What sort of missions and concepts can you think of? Got anything you’d like to know about the world? Something you always wanted to try? (Or at least have a human guinea pig try for you?) Use “find a real pirate” as what I consider to be a good example. It can be anything, though — interesting, funny, dangerous, inappropriate, stupid, gimmicky, crazy, sexy, cool (big ups TLC?) — whatever.

You come up with it, I do it, document it, and report back. It’s like the Subservient Chicken of travel blogs.

Some other good examples are some of the travel segments done by Vice Magazine’s vbs.tv. For example, they went to Colombia looking for a drug called scopolamine used by criminals to render victims completely open to suggestion who are then robbed and raped. Apparently half of the emergency room admissions in Bogota are related to scopolamine. The guy initially thought it would be a funny story, but it ended up being a terrifying and awful drug.

They went back to Chernobyl 20 years after the melt down. They hung out in a gypsy village in Bulgaria. They found people that have sex with donkeys in Colombia like it ain’t no thang. New Years in Kabul, an actual Pakistani arms market, a Japanese porn producer who puts live eels inside his actors (yeah, eel porn), gay leather culture, people that live off of garbage in Manilla, etc.

Seriously; throw anything out there. It needn’t even be super crazy or topical. Cool if it is, though.

Obviously, where I am could affect your suggestions. I am leaving Poland next Thursday, December the 11th to go to Budapest. From there I’m headed to Turkey. Then to India and then Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam). As per usual, these destinations are not set in stone. I’d be glad to go somewhere else if there’s a good enough reason to go there.

Got an idea? Got two? Write ‘em in the comments. Let’s see what we can come up with.

Chicago, St. Louis, The Delta… Krakow? It turns out Polish blues is pretty awesome. But first, some background:

Smoking, Drinking, and Bathroom Line Lurkery

Thursday was Thanksgiving and Poland doesn’t give a shit about Thanksgiving. I was feeling mopey, missing my friends and family, Street Fighter II Turbo marathons, and going out back home for relatively awkward conversation with people from high school I don’t know very well. I decided the best thing to do would be to get out of the apartment, go see some music, and have relatively awkward conversations with people I don’t know at all!

There’s a cozy little underground bar with live music close to my apartment. This is part of it:

You walk down a narrow set of stairs from the sidewalk to the entrance, push past a black velvet curtain, and enter a series of curved brick-ceiling rooms connected by narrow corridors. Bars like this are common in Poland and seem to frequently lack even a modicum of ventilation, which is unfortunate for non-smokers because I have decided that Poland is a nation of balls-out, unapologetic chain-smokers. You can smoke almost anywhere here and people do. With reckless abandon. My jeans smell like a strange mix of Polish bar and dog kibble right now.

I found this particular spot last week after going to an Irish pub called “The Irish Embassy,” which is right next to the actual American Embassy in Krakow. America has a consulate, Ireland has a bar. Surprise. There I met a middle-aged car mechanic from the island of Jersey between France and England. He was in Krakow pissing away part of a big settlement he got in his divorce. He explained at length to me why his wife cheating on him three years ago was the best thing that’d ever happened to him as he now finds himself buying cars, going where he wants, and seeing his kids on the weekends.

From the Irish Embassy, I moved on to the aforementioned underground music bar. I had a quite an enjoyable time at this bar last week stationing myself outside the bathroom and talking to everyone in the place while I had them cornered with nowhere to go as they waited to pee. I was a bathroom line lurker. Everyone understandably thought I was waiting to go myself, would ask about it in Polish, and then I would ask if they speak English. Instant conversation! They’ve got nowhere to go and I’ve got nobody better to talk to. Perfect. I gallantly ushered them in front of me as I sized up my next victim.

The Blues? In Poland? Yup.

On Thanksgiving, I returned to the underground music bar. One might expect such a bar in the heart of Poland to have a healthy dose of Mazurka or Klezmer music. (Will anyone other than Ryan Hertz even know what these are? Did anyone other than Ryan Hertz major in Ethnomusicology?) Probably wouldn’t expect blues, though. And if there was blues, it probably wouldn’t be worth your time.

Enter Joanna Pilarska (pictured right) and Arek. She’s a Polish blues singer and guitar player who had a gig at the bar on Thanksgiving night. And sing, she did. Arek played guitar. It was the Dr. Pepper of Polish Thansgivings. No need for line-lurking this time around.

I met a Norwegian oil rig worker who bought all my drinks for me. His wife was sick at the hotel but he had to come see the blues. Loose on cheap Polish beer, this man eventually stumbled back to his hotel to go “wake up the missus - sick or not!” Sorry, lady. It’s not my fault. Thanks for the drinks, though, buddy.

After a set break, I moved closer to the stage with the below-mentioned group of guys. Given my handle on the English language and obvious enjoyment of the show, Joanna handed me the microphone at one point during Tracey Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason.” I tried not to think about my awful Rock Band vocal performances and shamelessly belted it out without hesitation. The people cheered and the band didn’t need to activate Overdrive and save me. Great success!

The crappy audio from my point-and-shoot Canon doesn’t do this justice, but here’s a video sampling from the four hour show. The What’s Up closer by 4 Non Blondes was a big hit:

Joanna Pilarska in Krakow from Nathan Shipley on Vimeo.

Joanna and Arek are part of bigger band called “Joanna Pilarska & Na Drodze.” Their MySpace page is here, for the curious.

Bartek Busts a Flow

After the show, I hung out with a group of guys which included Bartek. Like me, Bartek loves hiphop. Upon mention of Wu-Tang’s “Triumph,” the trans-Atlantic gap between Polish and American cultures was instantly bridged. Bartek mostly kept up with me as we recited Inspectah Deck’s part, “I bomb atomically, Socrates’ philosophies and hypothesis can’t define how I be droppin’ these - mockeries, lyrically perform armed robbery,” etc. Thanks to 36 Chambers and to gangster rap in general. You’re still bringing people together.

Bartek then went in to a 2 or 3 minute freestyle session with his friend beat boxing for him. Here’s a clip. Anyone know Polish and want to translate this for me? I’d love to subtitle it.

Bartek Busts a Flow from Nathan Shipley on Vimeo.

The GZA? In Poland? Yes.

Speaking of Wu-Tang, GZA is playing in Krakow tomorrow. This promises to be interesting. Hopefully the show isn’t sold out. I’m trying to get in touch with Bartek to see if he wants to go.

More soon, people! I’ve got some decisions to make about where I’m going next. It’s looking like Turkey, but Latvia / Lithuania are also options. Or Belarus. And then it’s on to India which, if you have any idea of what’s going on with the news at the moment, looks, to say the least, interesting.

Hi. I’m Nathan.

Just get here from TravelBlogs.com? Want a quick intro to me and my trip? The About Page aughta be helpful. I have no real plan, but there’s a rough framework of what I’m doing on The ‘Plan’ page. For the truly lazy, a 5-second explainer of what my trip is about is the equation to the right.

I’m currently in Krakow, Poland after spending more than four incredible months in South America. Two months in Peru, two months in Colombia, and a week in Buenos Aires before a change in (non-existent) plans lead me here. I’m still missing me some South America.

Here are a few stories to get you started:

When I was in Peru, I pretended to be a doctor visiting from the United States and lied to children:
Dr. Shipley Visits Peru

I ended up with two transsexuals at a gay bar in Bogota after heading out in search of a stripper that does tricks with bottles.
In Search of Bottle Girl

In Colombia, I went to Pablo Escobar’s now-defunct estate and had to bribe some cops on the way over:
Bribing Cops and the Strange World Pablo Escobar’s Estate

After a Colombian death metal show, a crazy guy told me God was going to kill me and all the gringos. Then we met Sausage Shorts:
Death Metal and The Suicidal Crazytime Screamer

Thanks for stopping by. Have a look around! Enjoy the story.

I have just gotten back from my second night at the much-anticipated Etiuda & Anima film festival in Krakow. I’ve been to three 2-hour shows of shorts now and there’s plenty more where that came from. While I was there, I mentioned to the Film Festival that I have some production people amongst my readers, and they asked me to please post the following letter for consideration.

November 14, 2008:

FROM: The Polish Film Festival, Krakow, Poland
TO: Filmmakers

Dear Filmmaker,

Hello. We, The Polish Film Festival, cordially invite you to submit your film to our festival. As the 2008 festival wraps up, we’re looking for new exciting entries for the 2009 Polish Film Festival and along with ANYTHING else we can scrape up, we want YOUR film.

We receive the same common questions from many different filmmakers and would like to go over those questions with you right away. To make this simple and assuage any concerns you might have about submitting your film, here is the Polish Film Festival FAQ for Filmmakers:

Polish Film Festival FAQ for Filmmakers:

Q: What if my film was shot on shit DV and looks terrible? Should I still send it in?
A: SEND IT IN!

Q: What if I haven’t had any time to do any audio editing and am just using the on-camera microphone in my film? Is that a problem? Is it unprofessional?
A: We don’t care. SEND IT IN!

Q: What if my film is supposed to be a “deep” documentary about an Arab kid that annoys tourists at ruins and tries to get them to buy postcards but everyone is rude to him and no one buys the post cards and every shot is the handheld camera 1 foot from his face as he walks around pestering people? Would that be a good fit for your festival?
A: Absolutely. SEND IT IN.

Q: Do I need characters in my film?
A: No.

Q: Should there be a lot of people credited that worked on my film to surprise viewers that so many people had a hand in it’s creation, even though it still ended up sucking REALLY hard?
A: Not required, but definitely a plus. SEND IT IN.

Q: What if my film is really “artsy” and just kinda weird for the sake of weird? What if it’s 15 diconnected, random scenes and then ends with several wide shots of public places where everybody just freezes and stops walking and then they all lie down on the ground and then I include several other shots of people lying on the ground kind of like they’re dead and then the dog that I kept cutting back to with the heartbeat sound on the patio goes back in to the living room and sits across from the TV with the video of the fish in the aquarium on it before it cuts to black and rolls credits?
A: That is truly beautiful. You know what to do. SEND. IT. IN!!!

Q: What if my film is about 10 minutes long but only has a shot of cars going along a street, a really zoomed in shot of the moon REALLY SLOWLY crossing the screen, and a shot of a guy hanging off of a boat in a harbor by his arms? If it helps, I can include the sound effect of a gunshot in the middle of it and a quick cut to someone’s face.
A: We are speechless. We need this movie.

Q: What if my film is called “Karaoke” and has a fucked up bizarro German song and consists of 4 solid minutes of a full-frontal naked man screaming in to a microphone while a fat guy sleeps on a coach in front of him and his breathing is in fast motion?
A: WE WILL LOVE THIS MOVIE! SEND IT IN!!!!

Q: What if my film has literally no narrative whatsoever?
A: SEND IT IN!

Hopefully this FAQ will take care of some of the most common questions our prospective filmmakers have before submitting a film to The Polish Film Festival. While we are quite selective in what we include in the festival, it takes a special breed of filmmaker to be included in our show.

We hope that you’ll consider a submission and then after the screening you will leave in disgust before the second set of films is over and walk home in a huff, too angry and disappointed to even go in to a bar and have a beer on a Friday night.

We look forward to hearing from you, Filmmaker.

Best Regards,
- The Polish Film Festival

So. Yeah. That is an excerpt from an email I actually sent to a friend when I got home last night. On a Friday night. I tried to think of how to describe the film festival to blog readers, and decided against re-making the wheel.

On the bright side, it has inspired me to create things. Maybe something people will laugh with, possibly relate to on some level, or even enjoy.

Ah, who am I kidding? There’s no market for stuff like that.

Send ‘em in, people.

Where I Live

It’s a small studio near the center of Krakow owned by a very nice Polish family. Mom, Dad, and the two boys (26 and 20) live upstairs.  Mom doesn’t understand why her eldest son Andrzej doesn’t want to get married. I’m with you, Andrzej. Fight the power.

In the interest of geekery, we’re going to try a little something different for the apartment tour this time. I’ve sloppily put together a 360 degree Quicktime file of my apartment that you can click on and pan around to have a look. Just click on the image and get your drag on (If you want to get fancy you can hold the Shift or Control button with your mouse over the image to zoom in or out.):

Be curious to hear if this works for people.

A Thursday Night in Kazimierz

A typical bar or club in central Krakow is underground. Not secret underground but actually underground. You can’t see most bars from the street and thus have to walk in to a gated alley and then down in to the cellar of a building. I was initially confused when I got here because, seeing no people, I thought everything was dead. Turns out you just need to go down the typically precarious stairs to the basement. It actually has a cool and cozy feel to it most of the time - exposed brick walls, low, curved ceilings, candle light. The Kazimierz area, on the other hand, is a bit more typical - the bars are just at street level and have plain old windows.

Polish Satan and his Girlfriend

Thursday night started in one such Kazimierz bar playing the Marilyn Manson version of “Tainted Love.” I met Polish “Satan” and his girlfriend by getting in to an argument over who did the original version. They said it was The Cure, which is what initially brought me in to the conversation. The bartender (pictured right), who Wikipedia tells me was actually correct, said it was originally by Gloria Jones. I erroneously insisted that it was Soft Cell.

Polish Satan’s real name is “Gregor.” That’s him and his lady pictured below to the left. Gregor is an electrical engineering student. However, he emphasized that as an atheist he prefers to be called Satan and/or Lucifer. Subtle. I respected his request, but was more entertained when he took his hair out of the ponytail and we all agreed that he looked the most like Jesus.

This lead to an entertaining conversation of me fielding questions about America. Satan’s girlfriend initially started this off by saying, “Tell me about you country.” I rambled for a little bit and then asked if she had any more specific questions. She did. For example, things like, “When you walk down road is all person really so fat?” or “Why is United State so crazy??”

For the first time I got to practice my new Obamafied outlook when she asked about the elections! Nice. She is an Obama fan, but I had to explain that the N word is not the preferred way to refer to a black / African American guy. Satan already knew this.

Attempting to Swear in Polish and English

We then continued by having a conversation about our respective languages. As with any typical language conversation, it went straight to the interesting stuff: cuss words. I can now say all manner of filth in Polish. Or rather, because Polish is a really difficult language, I have to actually take out my notebook, find the right page, and read the words that I have copied down phonetically in English, which tends to make it funnier due to the overall awkwardness of the process and inevitable mispronunciation. “Oh, wait, wait! I got one. Hold on, hold on… let me just find it here. … Yeah. Kurwa! Zajebiście!” Hilarity ensues.

Satan’s girlfriend had just been informed that day that she was going to be fired by her (coincidentally American) employer and was drowning her sorrows at the bar. She wanted to practice her English swear words and her inebriation made the entire conversation all the more ridiculous. The most confusing for her seemed to be the phrase, “Take a shit.” The conversation went like this:

Polish girl, “But this words I do not understand. To make, ehh, poop, to make shit — you know hhhow is this — is this the correct word? Shit?”

Me, “Yes. That’s it.”

Polish girl, “Yes. I have to go to toilet now and make shit. But that is not how you will say. What will you say? I do not remember the correct.”

Me, “I think you mean you need to ‘take a shit.’”

Polish girl gets excited now and continues, “YES! Yes, this is! Why is this? ‘Take a shit?’ I make a shit. I do not take to you when I finish. It stays and I do not take it. You know, it…” She trailed off and did her best to pantomime flushing a toilet and spinning her hands around like water being flushed.

Me, “Yeah, it’s just one of those things, I guess. Just how we say it. Take a shit.”

This was apparently very funny to her. She couldn’t stop laughing at the mental image she had by our misleading phrase. She laughed and rambled on about how she was going to “go the toilet and take back gift for American.” “I will take you my shit! Where is the bag!?” she exclaimed. Next to her, Satan laughed.

The bartender was starting to pour free shots for our group, which seems to be common here. Not wanting to get sloppy, I made my exit. Like my old man says, you can’t soar with the eagles in the morning if you hoot with the owls at night. There was a little more hooting to do, though, I just didn’t want to fall out of the tree.

Kazimierz Karaoke

From here I stopped by one of the many stands that sell cheap long pieces of bread topped with a variety of different options. I think they’re called “zwykła” but I really can’t be certain. They’re very popular late-night food in Krakow. I chose one with salami because it was the only thing I was relatively certain I could pronounce properly and avoid too much confusion with the restaurant workers who never speak English. There’s the menu pictured below.

I hung out with a group of art students outside for a little bit before making my way to a bar called “Fuego” for karaoke, which was the entire point of me heading out.

The karaoke was happening, but it wasn’t super crowded. Perhaps I got there a little bit too late. However, within minutes I met a big group of Polish people and a random French guy that ended up being fun to hang out with. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any hiphop represented in the selection of available songs. There was a pretty even mix of Polish songs and American/British songs.

This video below is roughly what it was like. Witness “Always” by Bon Jovi being belted out by a duo. When it got to the faster part of the song, the female singer did backup (or just gave up and went with a single-sound approach instead of specific words). The guy with the pony tail is supposed to be doing the other part. Apparently one girl did not approve of the pony-tailed guy’s job and actually tried to take the microphone away from him mid-song. As you will see, he did not like this. Poor form on her part.

Karaoke in Krakow at “Fuego” from Nathan Shipley on Vimeo.

Awesome. I love karaoke. I’ll be going back.

How’m I Eatin’ in Poland?

Cheap, Polish, and occasionally confused.

Going to restaurants here is even more of a crapshoot than in South America, where I would at least have some idea what I was getting myself in to. Polish menus are complete mysteries to me. I just point at something that isn’t too expensive and eat what they bring me.

My favorite staple thus far has been make-’em-at-home pierogis. Buy frozen:

Boil for 8-10 minutes in salty water:

Enjoy!

They’re fast, easy, filling, cheap, and consistently tasty. Much better, though, where the made-from-scratch ones that the family who owns my apartment invited me to share with them.

This is a Polish pancake:

I did not cook it. It’s filled with something white and really tasty. It was given to me by the mother of the family who owns my apartment because she feels bad about the construction happening in the building right next to my room. I feel bad about it too because the workers come in early every morning and are using some sort of industrial adhesive to put down new flooring that makes my lungs hurt.

Other highlights include Crack cookies:

I also seem to have a tendency to buy the wrong things. I was duped in to thinking I was buying frozen pierogis, but I ended up with only puff-balls filled with nothing. They were spongy and pretty bland, but I soldiered through them:

I purchased a strange, sour fruit-ish concoction thinking it was milk. It says “Maslanka wrzensinska” on the bottle, has an expiration date, and was in the dairy section. I don’t think it’s yogurt, but it has the consistency of yogurt, and the taste of bad. I have yet to buy more milk.

I also had to actually ask someone what was butter at the Carrefour. “Przeproszam. Czy mowi pani po angielsku?” (My best Polish phrase meaning, “Excuse me. Do you speak English?”) “Yes, I do,” replied the random girl. “Oh! Great! Hey, sorry, do you know which of these things is butter?” I was in the completely wrong section despite the fact that twenty different tubs in front of me could have easily been some sort of buttery spread. She was quite helpful and lead me to the butter. Humbling.

That’s all for now, kids. I leave you with pictures of the Krakow old guy chess spot (it doesn’t have the intensity of Peruvian Chess Culture, but it’s still good.) and one of the central plaza in Krakow with a cloud that looks like Greenland:

Here’s the Flickr gallery for this post.