First Day in Krakow

We started off our day with some technical difficulties, our shower was not able to produce hot water. At first my dad inspected it; pocket knife at the ready, but was unable to fix it, which obviously took my mother by surprise. In the end we e-mailed our host and her husband came over to assess the damage. It turned out that the batteries for the water tank had gone out, so he replaced them (we think that it may have been from their own water heater) and promised to come back later in the day to replace them again with brand new ones. We thanked him and assured him that it really was not a problem, and that we were just happy to have it fixed.

But as we tried it out for a second time, we were, again, unsuccessful. I had a short, cold shower and decided that it was the best I was going to get. My parents figured out a little trick to keeping the hot water as long as possible but we are all looking forward to the new batteries.

When we were all dressed, not necessarily clean, we walked out to go to a nearby square. When we arrived we saw many food and craft stalls, as well as a large, old building in the middle of the square. This building was kind of like an ancient mall and reminded me of a very small Turkish Bazaar. We split up into pairs and walked around the building, looking at the stalls. About 80 percent of them were selling amber, and the other 20 percent were selling stuffed dragons. My dad and I weren't very interested in either so we ended up wandering around outside in the square around the building. We saw about six "living statues", all of them with quite odd costumes. Among them were the Grim Reaper, and Lady with an Ermine.

When we joined up with the other two my mom told us that she had found a few pieces of jewelry that she'd liked. In the end, she didn't just get the bracelet, but my dad bought a matching necklace and set of earrings as well. I'm just glad my dad took a little extra cash with him today so that we were able to eat. Speaking of food, our lunch was amazing. We shared some perogies (one set spinach and the other cheese and potato), sausage, pork, and fried vegetables among the four of us. My dad was able to have a beer because we weren't doing any driving, and this made him quite happy after he had spent a fortune on my mom.

After lunch we looked around the stalls again and I bought myself yet another pair of cat earrings (remember the pewter shop back in Holland?), while Hannah bought a bracelet and a pair of purple pencil earrings as well. From here Hannah and I walked home as my parents went to check out another church. In the evening I opted to stay home as the other three went to a Jewish concert. I spent my hours of isolation feasting on yogurt, chicken and pretzels while watching Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol for the third time (It's really good.. you should go see it if you haven't).