Krakow the 27th

I sat down this afternoon all set to do my blog and my computer started messing with me.  Everything's fine now.  I forget exactly where I left off but we boarded a night train headed to Krakow, Poland at about 6, or 8-I can't quite remember, the evening of the 26th.  This time it was an 11 hour train ride.  We got to K in time for breakfast and then headed for the hostel to drop our stuff.  We took a tour of the hostel and then headed out to change money.  Poland uses the zloti and when we were there it was about 3z for every 1$.  Immediatly we were drawn to the Christmas markets and toured those for awhile.  We discovered a walking tour starting after lunch and decided to join that.  Our guide's name was Thomak, or Thomas, and, since we were a little early for the tour, he decided to have everyone introduce themselves and tell where they were from.  YOU ARE TOTALLY NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!  If Jez and Rachel weren't with me the whole time I would have sworn they had something to do with this!   I said I was from Indianapolis and he said "isn't there a basketball team or something in Indianapolis?"  I gave Jez my cup of hot chocolate and went and gave him a hug.  I asked him later what he knew bout the bball team in Indianapolis and he said that was about it.  Since the tour itself was around 4 hours and we hadn't had an actual lunch, I decided to forgo the chit-chat in order to keep our stomachs happy.  What are the odds???  The tour ended up being very nice and informative!  We saw where Max Factor, the makeup brand, started and learned something, which is gone from my brain now, pretty cool about Star Trek.  He took us to the Schindler Museum and we saw part of the actual wall that seperated the Jewish people from the rest of Krakow.  Lots of history there; most of it appaling but history nonetheless.  We saw the section, kinda like a center square, of Krakow where, after the liberation at the end of WW2, the German officers/soldiers raided the homes of Jewish people and literally threw all their furniture out of the windows to the center below.  Today there are statues in the shape of chairs scattered throughout this part of Krakow.  More on that later.  At the end of the tour, we gave donations since it was a free tour and I threw in an extra 5z because he mentioned basketball.  We went back to the Jewish section we had been to earlier and had a late lunch/early dinner.  Then it was time to go actually check in to the hostel.  We hit up the Christmas market more that night and discovered this cupcake place that just happened to be right next to our hostel.  That was a sign right there I'll tell you what!!  We each enjoyed a different kind and then of course had to try a bite of the other 2.  We saw on the sign that the flavor for the next night was oreo, grasshopper, and another flavor that was a big draw, and made a pact to go back the next night.  I think we headed back to the hostel after that and called it a night.  Oh yeah!  Jez and I went for a walk, got some adult beverages and chips, and sat on a bench and chatted for a bit.  After awhile the conversation paused for a bit and she says, in Bulgarian, "I think that we should speak in Bulgarian now because I have a homework assignment from my tutor to speak Bulgarian some during this trip...and YOU DO TOO!"  Her tutor is a very nice lady who I met once when I was visiting, and makes awesome banitza, and knew we were going to be together.  I thought it was pretty funny.  I think we called it a night after that and I am now going to as well!  It's COLD here!!  I think today it was -14*C which is about 6*F.  Classes have been shortened all over B because of the cold temperatures.  Stay warm wherever you are and love and hugs from here!!