MBA Class

Cracow University of Economics (in nicer weather)

I haven't done any postings for a while because I've been busy preparing for and then teaching a week-end executive MBA class on Implementing Change (a course I have not taught before, so it required quite a bit of preparation). Though exhausting to teach 6-7 hours a day, three days in a row, I think the class went quite well. It was fun to be with working managers who could readily relate to the information and think of examples to apply the ideas we talked about and I think they also appreciated my business experience. (This was the last class of their 2-year coursework.) Since my other students are from all over Europe, this was also my first experience working with students who could give me insights into Polish businesses and how they are managing the transition to a market economy. Several of the students told me afterwards that it was the best class of their MBA - John thinks they were just buttering me up to get a better grade, but I'm choosing to take them at their word (it makes me feel good)! Their class projects aren't due until the end of February, so I'll still be doing work for this class long after I'm back home!

My office at the University

Amazingly, the University was as busy - if not busier - on Saturday and Sunday as it is during the week. Even at 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. the hallways were packed. I guess that says something both about the University's ability to make full use of their facilities as well as the desire of Polish people to gain an education.

On Sunday we also experienced "fund raising, Polish-style." On our way to the University in the morning, there were young people on every street corner with the same cardboard "bank" boxes for collecting money and heart stickers to give to people who donated. We weren't sure what it was all about, but found out once we arrived at the University. This was a nation-wide effort to raise money to buy equipment for childrens' hospitals. On our way home late in the afternoon, there was a big stage in the main square with bands playing. Everyone had the red heart stickers on their jackets - you just had to donate if for no other reason than to fit in! The fund raisers must have all been well-trained because they were courteous, yet aggressive. Once we got home and turned on the TV, it was like a telethon reporting fund raising levels from different cities in Poland and various competitions between different companies, etc. Very interesting!

Happy Sylwester!

Krakow's main square (the Rynek) on New Year's Eve

We couldn't figure out why all the signs advertising New Year's Eve talked about "Sylwester." Then in Budapest and Vienna it was the same thing - Sylvester! When I asked my students (who are from all over Europe) what they call New Year's Eve, they looked at me rather strangely and said "Sylvester, of course." Turns out the 31st of December is the day of Saint Sylvester – therefore, New Year's Eve is “Sylvester."

(Saint Sylvester was Pope from 314-335, and according to legend healed from leprosy and then baptized the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great - a major turning point in the history of the Christian Church.)

Today, many cities here celebrate New Year's Eve by holding formal "Sylvester Balls" but in Krakow, everyone heads for the main market square - at least it seemed like everyone in Krakow was there. It was almost impossible to move, it was so crowded. John, Alison and I headed off to a side street to observe the festivities from a little distance, but Nick dove into the thick of things going right up to the stage (where bands had been playing all night) for a great view of the fireworks (and popping champagne bottles) at midnight. (We still got soaked, even on our side street.) We learned later it was estimated that only 190,000 people were in the square that night when over 200,000 were expected. I don't know how any more people could have possibly fit!

(And I did buy some tacky little pigs in Vienna to give to John, Alison and Nick - hope they bring them good luck in the new year!)

The center stage in front of the Cloth Hall

Elegant Vienna

The best word I can think of for Vienna is "elegant" - where else would you find chandeliers used as the street lights at Christmas? Here are a few others...





On December 28 we left Budapest and took a short (3 hour) train ride to Vienna. Though farther east than Prague, one seldom thinks of Vienna as being part of "eastern" Europe because Austria was not part of the Eastern Block countries after WWII. And it did have a very different feeling to it than most of the cities we have visited on this trip. It's also on the Euro and quite a bit more expensive - equivalent of any large, modern metropolitan city. We stayed in a pension with rooms on the 3rd and 4th floor of an old building right in the middle of the Old City area, close to the magnificent St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Graben (and other shopping streets), and the Hofburg Palace (with its Treasury and a magnificent collection of crown jewels, robes and other valuables...considered to be the best on the Continent).


Just a few of the crown jewels....

It was very cold, so we spent one morning touring Vienna from the tram that goes around the Old City on the "Ringstrasse." It's lined with many of the city's top sites...the Opera, Austrian Ministry of War (decorated with heads wearing different military helments), the Observatory, Votive Church, City Hall, Austrian Parliament....all very impressive buildings, though we didn't take very good pictures from the tram. We would love to visit Vienna again in warmer weather....though if it was this crowded in the winter, I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer!

Detail of the Austrian Ministry of War building


The Hofburg Palace (or, rather, one section of it)



Close-up of the Austrian 2-headed eagle. (The heads represent the dual sovereignty of the Emperor (secular and religious) and/or dominance of the Emperor over both East and West. Several Eastern European nations adopted it from the Byzantines and continue to use it as their national symbol to this day.)



This time in gold...



A strange contrast to the elegance of Vienna were these little kiosks all over the city selling cheap little pigs of all shapes and sizes. The receptionist at our pension explained that they are good luck charms people give to others on New Year's Eve to wish them luck for the new year.


Even the bakeries got into the pig thing...

Grand Budapest

We left for Budapest at noon on Christmas Day and rode a train through southern Poland and eastern Slovakia before arriving in Budapest, Hungary around 9:00 p.m. I knew it was risky arriving in a new country on a holiday night, but had good directions on how to use the Metro to get from the train station to the hotel and the tour book said there were several ATMs in the train station. What I didn't count on was that much of the train station was under construction (though the section where we arrived was an absolutely beautiful 19th-century building that reminded us of Paris' Orsay train station-turned museum), the area where all the services were supposed to be was closed off with wood boards). There was only one accessible ATM and of course it was out of service (probably out of money). The ticket machines for the Metro (subway) didn't take credit cards, so we all went on a search for a near-by hotel where we could change some dollars into Hungarian Forints. After three tries we found a desk clerk at a Best Western who was very helpful, got our Forints, went back to the Metro and easily found our hotel, the Victoria. What a wonderful surprise when we finally checked into our rooms and looked out the window for what has to be the most fantastic view around. Our hotel was in "Buda" looking across the Danube to "Pest" and the Parliament building and other grand structures. Built as a capital of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, the word that kept coming to mind when touring Budapest was "grand." The buildings are all HUGE and the streets broad. For example, the Parliament Building (one of several built in 1896 for the city's millennial celebration) is enormous, with literally miles of stairs. (We didn't get to tour it because we didn't realize you needed your passport with you to get a ticket.) Today, Hungary's legislature only uses one-eighth of the building.

The Budapest Parliament (Orszaghaz) is really much more impressive than these pictures indicate.

During our time in Budapest, we toured the castle hill (in Buda) with its Matthias Church founded 800 years ago, walked the two grand streets of Pest (Vaci Utca - the shopping and "promenade" street - and Andrassy Ut - a boulevard with theatres and cafes often compared to the Champs-Elysees in Paris), shopped at the Great Market Hall (another grand building from 1896), visited St. Istvan's (Stephen's) Basilica, went to Heroes' Square (Hosok tere) with all the statues of famous Hungarians, walked the Chain Bridge (the first bridge to connect Buda and Pest, built 1842-1849), and rode the first subway built in continental Europe. (You guessed it - built in 1896 for the millenial celebration - every construction worker in Hungary must have been working in Budapest that year.) It was grand and it was cold. But our hotel, besides having a great view and wonderful breakfasts, had a sauna!

John in Heroes' Square, with a statue of Arpad, the grand-daddy of all Magyars (MUD-jars, the Asian ancestors of today's Hungarians). Do you see any family resemblance? John's grandfather (Martin Balo) listed his race as "Magyar" on his immigration documents to the U.S. The Hungarian language isn't related to any European language (except Finnish and Estonian) - it isn't even Indo-European in origin, which would make it very difficult to communicate if so many people didn't speak English or German.

Exterior of the Market Hall

Budapest Market Hall, an early shopping mall built in 1896, is still filled with produce stands, bakeries, meat markets and other produce on the main floor and Hungarian-style fast food and traditional Hungarian crafts (and souvenirs) on the second floor.

My favorite part of the Buda Castle Hill was the "fishermen's bastion" - a structure built with cone-topped towers to represent the tents of the nomadic Magyar tribes. (The fish market was just below this hill on the banks of the Danube, so this part of the castle was supposedly guarded by the fishermen, thus the name...)

There are 7 cone-topped towers in all, to represent the 7 Magyar tribes.

St. Stephen's Basilica

The Chain Bridge at night


And, yes, we ate goulash and meat with paprika sauce. Here the paprika shaker replaced the pepper at the table. There was also a lot of fish on the menus - such as "pike perch" from Lake Balaton, the large fresh-water lake in western Hungary.

Christmas Eve in Krakow

Nick and Alison in front of our Christmas Eve dinner restaurant - which opened in 1364!

On Christmas Eve Day, Alison and I did some shopping first at Krakow's very modern mall and then at the traditional downtown Christmas market. (Actually, we just looked at the mall and then did our real shopping at the market square. )

Alison says the big red heart lollipop from this stand is one of the best she's had! She was disappointed when it wasn't there after Christmas.

Since most places close down on Christmas Eve (this time is traditionally spent at home with a 12-course meatless dinner followed by opening gifts and then midnight mass), we made reservations for an early dinner at a very old restaurant on the square, Wierzynek. (According to legend, its opening in 1364 was attended by 5 kings and 9 princes. Since then, DeGaulle, Bush and Castro have also supposedly eaten here.) We then walked home through the lovely square all lit up for Christmas, exchanged our gifts, and shared our "oplatek" Christmas wafers and Merry Christmas wishes. (Traditionally this is done before dinner: each person breaks off a piece of the very thin wafer and shares it with other family members, then exchanges kisses on both cheeks, and offers a Christmas blessing.) Nick's gift to me was a Polish cookbook that includes the menu for the Wigilia (Christmas Eve) feast, so I guess I'll have to try it next year. (Though I doubt I'll see big tubs of fresh carp in the grocery stores at home!)

Our "Wigilia" - Christmas Eve dinner

These Christmas Angels have been set up in parks all over town - there's even one at the airport. Though I couldn't get a very good picture of it, this is the one we pass every night on our way home.

Zakopane

After spending a few days touring Krakow, Nick wondered if we were going to spend the whole vacation sight-seeing. So we decided to change the pace a bit and took a bus to Zakopane, a winter resort in southern Poland's Tatras Mountains for a little skiing (Nick) and snowboarding (Alison). We were directed by the tourist information office to the Nosal slope, which had several short runs of varying difficulty - one of which was very steep. (We might have been better off at the Gubalowka, with a longer but gentler slope reached by a funicular. But for some reason the owner had the slope closed off for skiing.) Renting equipment and lift tickets was surprisingly inexpensive. It was a beautiful day to spend on the slopes in the fresh mountain air.



Nick's up there somewhere!


...and made it down safely.


Alison started on the training hill since she hadn't been on a snowboard in a long time, but worked her way up to longer runs.




Zakopane was a nice way to precede our visit to Auschwicz with Alison and Nick the next day. We saw things we hadn't seen during our first visit and it was still difficult. When we returned to Krakow, we had a very nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Cherubino.

Wielicka Salt Mines

After touring the Wawel (castle) in Krakow and its great cathedral, we took a mini-bus to Wielicka (vee-LEECH-kah), one of two major salt mines near Krakow. Ever since the Stone Age, this area has been a source of salt, first through boiling brine to extract it from easily reached top layers and then in the 13th century digging for salt gradually created these great mines. For centuries, salt was the major source of wealth for this region of Poland.

Listed as a UNESCO monument since 1978, the Wieliczka mine has 9 levels and the tour covers a series of chambers full of carvings and statues - completely decorated in salt. In the large room pictured, above, everything is made of salt....the crystals in the chandeliers, the floor "tiles," the wall carvings....the miners spent a lot of time down here and used their spare time to carve statues and chapels.

The Last Supper carved into the salt mine wall

Typical statues found in the salt mine.

John and Alison at the gate to the Krakow castle (our morning tour before the salt mine).