Krakow

Don't ask me why, but after all this time of not feeling like writing much in my blog, today I really wanted to post.
My friend Jim left this morning. He is an old friend from high school who was visiting me for just a few days and also shooting a documentary for some missionary friends of his in Latvia. He encouraged me and brought gifts and money! He's also a professional photographer, and he happened to be here for Language Day, the culmination of all my hard work since January, and get some nice shots of it. I can't wait to see them!
We had to get up at 5am to take him back to the airport. I got a chance to sleep for an hour and a half at Sarah #2's (not roommate) flat before we went back to the airport for our trip to Krakow.
I don't like flying too much, it actually makes me motion sick sometimes, but it's faster and usually I don't have the time because I travel just on long weekends. We took a Malev (Hungarian airline) flight, and they pampered us and gave us a free sandwich and coffee. By the time we got in the air, we were coming back down again. Budapest to Krakow is only a 40 minute flight. We got here in time to walk around and tour the city a bit.
Krakow is a little known beauty. It wasn't destroyed so bad as Warsaw in WWII, and has a gorgeous square. I'm getting quite fond of the city square's in every major European city, with beautiful churches and fountains and cafes around the center. We walked down to the Jewish quarter. I don't know what I expected to see, but it looked the same, except for some synoguages. I suppose I wanted Yiddish or Hebrew signs and stars on doorposts, but those things haven't been all preserved, and of course there isn't an actual Jewish community living there anymore. Sad, but true. So Sarah and I tried to close our eyes and picture what it might have looked like back then, but Jewish children and kosher restaurants and such. We did find a spot that Speilburg used to film Schindler's List. I asked the hostel worker where the factory was, and to my surprise he said it's nothing but an empty building now. There's not much to see. No museum or memorial, just an empty factory. So I guess we won't be visiting there, but I have a picture of an arch that was in the movie.
We went to museum in the quarter that had a montage of pictures of old synoguages and memorials in present day. In every country I visit, I always try to buy a book written by an author from that country who is famous and sort of captures my feel of the place. I bought one of Elie Weisel's books at the museum. I've read Night for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize and it's never left my mind. So I got another book by him since his work first introduced me to the holocaust and has gripped my heart ever since. That is the reason for my desire to come to Krakow at all. Tomorrow we are going to Auschwitz. I wanted to go on Good Friday on purpose. I want to hear and see and feel the suffering of the Jews and remember the suffering of my Lord. I want to weep for the loss and the love. I don't want to be just sobered and depressed by going there, but to feel God's sorrow and know why He chose to die.
Sarah and I are planning to attend two church services on Sunday. The first will be a mass in cathedral in the castle, in Latin. The second will be in English in a Protestant church planted by missionaries. The first is for the experience, the second is to celebrate and keep my focus on what this weekend is about. I want an Easter to remember for a lifetime.
Tonight we ate dinner at a Bagel/TexMex restaurant. Every time I travel, instead of eating the food of the country, I find the foods I miss the most from America and aren't found in Hungary instead. I am constantly craving bagels and tacos, so I had both satisfied in one place! If only Budapest would bring the BagelMomma from Krakow. I am much better at savoring the literature and history of a place than its cuisine.
After dinner we went to an open-air concert of a Polish folk singer who happens to be named Joanna. She sang in Polish, but her melodies were strong and passionate and lilting. She was accompanied by an accordian, some violins and cello, and random percussion instruments. I loved watching the accordian player. He was young and handsome, something you wouldn't expect, and I've never understand how complicated of an instrument it could be.
As my friends come and go to see me, and return to the States, I don't envy them. I feel I have so much at my fingertips. Listening tonight to Polish accordians, and tomorrow standing in the place where Jewish lives were destroyed and millions just disappeared from this earth, I don't wonder why I've decided to stay in Europe. I can't imagine being anywhere else.