Good-bye to Krakow!

Monika Sady, my main contact at the University

Marek Szarucki, my research partner

I've just returned from my last day at the University: said good-bye to my "shepherd" Monika and my research partner Marek; I was supposed to meet with the Vice Chancellor/head of International Education, but he was tied up in meetings (it's the beginning of their spring semester). We have most of our packing done, except for last-minute things for tomorrow morning. We're leaving a lot of clothes here but our bags are still stuffed (and heavy). We'll see how the check-in process goes.

We had our last Polish meal at a cute little restaurant just down the street from our apartment. It's not listed in any of the guide books, but since we walk by it every day we decided to try it a few weeks ago and loved it. (It's called "PPP" and we joked that it stood for Pierogi, Pork and Paczke - three staples of Polish food - but it's really "Piwnice Palacu Pokutynskich" meaning "in the cellar of the Pokutynskich Palace." Many of the restaurants we've been to in Krakow are located in lovely old cellars with arched brick ceilings and brick walls covered with tapestries or oriental rugs.) This place specializes in mushroom dishes, and they are fantastic. John had his usual: salmon for his main course with zurek as a starter (a Polish soup that's hard to describe...some places translate it as white barszcz, others call it sour rye soup. John has had it almost every day since we've been in Krakow.)

This will likely be my last posting. Thanks to all of you who have followed our adventures - knowing you are reading the blog has made it fun to write. Special thanks to our friend Lee who sent us THREE care packages (one of which had an interesting adventure with the Polish Postal Service).

Do widzenia!