The Olivia Countdown

Back in Kraków and the clock was ticking. We had only five more days before Olivia headed back to the U.S....

The Gardens at Wawel Castle

Olivia on Grodzka

I couldn't find an apartment for July, so the day we got back from Ireland, Olivia and I moved-in with my friend, Nico. There was an awkward hour where we were sitting in the mall with my stuff, waiting until his roommate finished moving out so we could move-in. The next day we collected my life from William's apt because he was going to be traveling for a month and then we made a bucket list for Olivia's last few days in Kraków, which of course included A LOT of food.  We had the best szarlotka (apple pie) in Kraków at Cafe Bona, breakfast at the french cafe, śledzia (pickled herring), the best pierogi at the Ukranian bar, the best żurek at U Babci Maliny, plum cake at plac wszystkich świętych, gofry (waffles), honey beer, pear vodka and of course, żubrówka (bison grass vodka that has a coconuty aftertaste). We kept up our appetites by taking long walks and pretty much every day we spent a couple hours catching some rays on the Wisła.  

Piotr cooking 

Piotr's Hungarian Concoction

Whipping up some breakfast

Nico's kind of became a hostel those few days. Piotr also didn't have a place to stay for a few days so he also crashed at Nico's. It actually ended up being a lot of fun. We all cooked together, hungout during the day and partied at night. Olivia and I introduced the boys to American dishes like pancakes, hash browns, spinach dip, salsa, etc. One night Piotr made a Hungarian dish and we accompanied it with Hungarian wine and palinka which we had bought in Budapest. Unfortunately, we started cooking way too late and everyone was starving long before the food was ready. We were literally all sitting around staring into space, except for Nico's friend, Kuba, who always has tons of energy and talks a lot. He was holding up the whole team until we finally sat down at the table. 

SO hungry

Feigning energy

 finally we can eat!

After dinner, it was time to PARTY! Olivia hadn't yet been to Frantic, a club in the city center and it happened to be lady's night, so we got gussied up and had a few extra shots of palinka before hitting the dancefloor. 

party mode - ON

palinka!

on the dance floor

shakin it

Olivia's last day in Kraków was the 4th of July, so of course we had to celebrate! We put on our red, white and blue and headed to the Wisła for a little fun in the sun. We even whipped up a few fruity cocktails to enjoy down by the water. 

Showing off their red-white-and-blue

Happy 4th!

After melting in the sun we headed to the Ukranian bar where we met up with Nico's friend, Piotrek, for some Ukranian beer and handmade pierogi. We didn't eat too many pierogi because we still had to go for the best kiełbasa (polish sausage) in Kraków one last time. It's sold six nights a week on a street corner from 8pm-3am. The guys set up a grill right on the curb and cook the kiełbasa right in front of you. Then there's a high table that everyone stands around to eat. Every time we go there we meet some characters, most of which have had one too many....

Ukranian bar

I got to ride the bike home

Mugging it, after kiełbasa

The next morning, Olivia and I got up early and had some coffee and cake at a local cafe for breakfast and then stopped for ice cream at 11am, just because. While I was taking Olivia's picture, this guy walked up to us, grabs my camera and insists on taking a pic of the two of us together. So we let him. He then asked us where he could find sunglasses. I pointed to the rack about five feet from his elbow. He thanked us, laughed, and went on his merry way.

He took a pretty good pic!

 On the way to the airport, Olivia and I sat in foreboding silence. A few times we talked about something nonsensical, but it was really pointless to say anything. We had grown so used to being together for that month, the thought of her leaving was like a storm cloud on the horizon. At the airport we checked her in and then stood in a bear hug long enough for tears to flow. I didn't know when I'd see her again, and as I watched her walk towards the terminal, I already began to miss her. 

Ireland

                                                                                                         

Malahide Castle

                                                    Howth

We hopped on a shuttle into the city, stored our stuff at a hostel and then did some wandering around the city. We made our first stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which we both loved. When you first walk in it seems surprisingly small and dilapidated, but as soon as we started to walk around it quickly became an amazing place. There are so many statues, commemorative plaques and little alcoves with beautiful paintings, sculptures and scriptures dedicated to the memory of the people. It was very moving for me and Olivia - neither one of us wanted to leave. In the small chapel for private prayer, I lit a candle for The Nana. 

Fish n' chips

After the cathedral we headed back to the hostel where we met our couchsurfing host, Peter. We had coffee, and then he took us to an East Asian exhibit at the library. It was Irish, but it was a really cool exhibit full of original scrolls, paintings, books and jewelry like I've never seen before in my life. After that we set up camp at his place and then went out to taste some Irish-y things. We had some greasy fish n' chips at the local fryer and then headed to a local bar for some guinness. 

      

  

The bar was such an 'Irish' experience. As soon as we walked in, all the guys sitting at one end started talking to us. The bartender demonstrated a proper way to pour a guinness (pour, let it sit, top it off and then serve it), and then we had to wait for it to 'set' before we toasted with 'slaunchy.' We sat in the back of the bar in the 'beer garden' or 'smoking area' and every few minutes one of the customers would come back for a cigarette. It was a relatively small space and every single person struck up a conversation with us. Most of them were locals and regulars at the bar and knew most of the people that came in and out on a regular basis. They were delightful to talk to and most of them were really funny. They had a way of telling stories, monologuing kind of and staring off into space as they did it. They would laugh with you at the punchline and then wish you a pleasant stay and head back to the bar. Through one of these encounters we met someone who used to be a tourist guide and he told us we must go see Howth, a small fishing village about 30 minutes outside of Dublin. We hadn't made any concrete plans, so the next day we woke up early and headed to the train station.

We got a special day pass at the train station which we could use to ride any train for the next 24 hours. First we headed to Malahide to see the castle. We wandered around the grounds for awhile and took a nap on the lawn and then headed to Howth, which ended up being our favorite spot on our trip. The pier was full of restaurants selling fresh fish, there was a little lighthouse and the water was so clear you could see the bottom of the bay. We took a walk up the cliffs and sat for awhile enjoying the view of the coast. We had a delicious seafood sampler at one of the restaurants by the coast - the best seafood chowder I have ever tasted. It was early for dinner yet, so we were pretty much the only people in the restaurant. Our waiter chatted with us a little and I couldn't help but laugh because I had the hardest time understanding what he was saying. Olivia had no problem and couldn't understand why I was so slow to catch-on. But he was a very nice fellow and gave us all kinds of recommendations about places to listen to live music and little spots to explore in town. He told us Galway was a must-see, and since our first recommendation went so well, we planned a trip to Galway the next day.

Galway wasn't as lovely as Howth. But this was due in part to the fact that we were both really tired at that point, hadn't slept well, and we had crappy weather. It didn't rain, thankfully, but it was really chilly and windy. We explored for a few hours and then spent the rest of the afternoon in a cafe reading magazines and sipping coffee. It was nice to relax a little and warm-up. Galway is a very sweet town, but it's very touristy and I think the best time to be there is at night for all the live music. Unfortunately we had to head back to Dublin, but we did hangout and listen to some live music in Dublin before hitting the hay.

The following day we had a slow start and spent several hours in a little diner and slowly woke up over a HUGE plate of porridge and coffee. Then we met up with my friend Marcos and hopped on a bus with him to Dundalk, a town close to the border of Northern Ireland where he lives. Marcos and I were very good friends while I was studying in Champaign, although I hadn't seen him since I graduated. He married a girl from Ireland a few years ago and when we planned our trip I contacted him to see if he was available to get together. He immediately invited Olivia and I to come and stay a few days with them, so of course we accepted!

                                  

It was the perfect end to our trip. Marcos and his wife, Yasmin, have a lovely place and Dundalk is a sweet little town. They were the perfect hosts, and we did nothing but hangout, eat, chat and go for walks. Olivia and I slept so well and both Marcos and Yasmin are excellent cooks. The food we had was delicious. It was so much fun to catch-up. We laughed and laughed for two days straight. Our final day there they had a bunch of friends over and they all helped us stay awake and escorted us to our bus at 3:30am. It was a great send-off and by 6am we were on a plane back to Kraków.

             

Hangin out with Yasmin and Marcos

Marcos and I

     

Playing Wii

The Long Awaited Update

Where to even begin? The last month has been incredibly eventful. A quick summary is definitely in order. 

While my family was in Prague, I managed to find an apartment and move in a matter of three days. I found a place with a tenant that wanted to move out a month early and thus break his contract. I was able to pick up his contract for a month, which worked out perfectly because the place was huge and this way Olivia could stay with me when she came back to Kraków for her month-long visit. The place was in Kazimierz, one of the new, young, hip neighborhoods and only a ten minute walk from my school. I lived with five erasmus students. Three of the girls and a boy were from France and the last girl was from Spain. Unfortunately, none of them spoke Polish, but they were pretty clean and quiet as roommates and didn’t mind that Olivia was around. 

language geek huddle

The first week Olivia was here, our school had a big soccer match against another school. My classmate who was supposed to organize our team completely forgot, and so a bunch of random students were hurriedly gathered together the day of, and their first time playing together was the game itself. It was pretty rough. The first few minutes, our school director was the goalie - the reason being, that he was practically bigger than the goal. Unfortunately this did not help, and he let the other team score five goals in a row before he was put on the bench. He’s one of the most good-natured people I’ve ever met. After losing terribly he came up to me and said, ‘Madeline, did you see!? At the very last minute we lost! Bad luck!’ We still had a good time cheering, and taking pictures. The odds were definitely against us language nerds from the get-go, as the other team had been playing together and practicing all year.

fish face

After the game Olivia and I hungout with Nicolas and then went home relatively early. On the way, a car drove by really close to us and as it passed, I suddenly got this shooting pain on my left arm. I thought the car had actually side-swiped me going by. I felt my arm, and realized I had been egged. I was covered in yolk. It was disgusting. 

 

The next morning we woke up super early and headed to school for a field trip. First we went to niedzicy, where we got a tour of a fairy-tale castle. I tried to translate as much as I could for Olivia, but the tour guide was talking too fast for my brain to process. It was challenging enough for me to understand what she was saying and when I tried to translate, I kept mixing in Polish without realizing it. Afterwards we went on a splyw down the dunajec river. You get into a raft and these guys paddle you down the river for three hours and show you different landmarks along the way. The river separates Slowakia and Poland so sometimes we would be in one country, and other times in the other. About 30 minutes before we arrived back at our starting point it started to pour-down rain. It had been so sunny that I left my jacket and umbrella on the bus. I got absolutely drenched. 

After the rain shower the sun came back out and we were able to dry out a little before heading back to Kraków. In Krakow we had some chinese for dinner and then met up with some of Nicolas’ friends to watch a boxing match. Olivia and I were grossed out with all the blood, so we didn’t stay long. We all headed to Cien club afterwards, where we danced until 5am. One of the guys we were with was completely plastered and had the funniest drunk behavior I have ever seen. He would be full of energy and yell excitedly at someone next to him and then, two minutes later would be slumped against the wall and start to completely collapse. Then his friends would slap him awake again and he’d be back in the game, only to wilt again shortly after. Eventually they got him to agree to head home. 

 Tram party

Unfortunately, the next week I had finals and juggling the study time along with hanging out and exploring with her was a bit tricky. But she was a huge help. It was nice to have her around to help out while I was at school. She could do errands like grocery shopping, make lunch, laundry, etc. I finally finished with school, and then we could really hangout and relax a little. 

The weekend of my finals, Manda came down to Kraków for a weekend visit. We got to hear all about her fabulous trip to Egypt and party a little before she headed back to Warsaw. It was great having an apartment because I got to do some cooking for a change and had a whole group of people to eat with since Manda and Olivia were in town. Yay! Friday after finals I made a big dinner for everyone and then we all went out and danced the night away. 

Saturday Olivia and I planned to have a chill night, but it didn’t exactly work out that way. We had dinner with Nicolas and then we decided to meet his friends Arpad and Reka for a drink. They were visiting Kraków from Budapest. When they showed up, Olivia and I couldn’t help but laugh. Arpad was a giant. He is 5’6” and solid. Next to him, everyone looked miniature. They turned out to be a lot of fun - we couldn’t stop laughing. Consequently, one drink turned into a very, very long night. At the club, somehow Arpad attracted a whole group of people who had a similar height and we started to refer to them as the ‘tall people.’ Olivia got along with them great and I barely saw her all night. At one point one of our favorite songs came on and we both went running towards the dancefloor. In order to get there you had to go through this dark passageway which was two steps down, a little walking space and two back up. We made the first half without any problems and then Olivia missed a step on the way back up and immediately went down. I tripped over her body and we both dissolved into uncontrollable laughter on the floor. Somehow, Olivia managed to successfully save her beer and I managed to fall funny on my arm which suddenly began radiating excruciating pain. That was the end of our night. We made it home, Olivia practiced her nursing skills and then we hit the hay. 

Olivia, Reka, Nico & Arpad

Laughing with the 'Tall People'

After finals were over, we had our final theater performance at a bar in the city center, followed by a tram party. The theater performance was so terrible, it was hilarious. It was a series of short, ironic sketches that played on normal every day situations and biblical stories. I played a violent ghost in two scenes in which I had to attack people with a knife and then a patient that was subsequently killed by the doctors in another scene. I was very glad when it was all over and we could head to the tram party. The university rented out a tram for several hours. You are allowed to bring with you anything you’d like to drink and there is a DJ to play music. At first they separated us into groups and came us an activity sheet to complete during the tram route. This was an immediate fail, as no one was interested in any sort of competition. As soon as the DJ started playing, we all began to dance. Within minutes it was hotter than hell and we happily sweated and danced for the next two hours. The DJ played pretty much all oldies which was a lot of fun for Olivia and I - and really all of the Americans. When it was over, it was still relatively early - only 10pm - so we all went to a club for even more dancing. 

Enjoying our Free Waterbags

The next day Olivia caught an afternoon bus to Budapest and I got all dressed-up for my graduation ceremony. We had a beautiful ceremony in the new university building. The director spoke, along with a few students and some of my classmates sang and or played instruments. Afterwards we took pictures and then Nicolas, Monika and I skipped the after-party because we had a train to catch. We had tickets for the night train to join Olivia in Budapest. 

Arpad was always phone planning

Money Eyes

It was the first time I’ve ever taken a night train. Nicolas and I ended up bunking with a family from Florida, and Monika was next door with a bunch of guys from Hawaii. Our family had more luggage than I’ve ever seen in my life. The luggage wrack above the beds was completely filled, there was luggage under the beds and they still filled one of their beds with luggage andhad the kids sleep together in one bunk. I had to sleep with my bag in my bunk because there was no other space. We spent most of the night in the corridor, chatting by an open window, but when we finally did go to bed, I slept like a baby. Nicolas didn’t have such a good night and he was incredibly crabby the next day because of it. We arrived around 8am and then joined Olivia at the hostel. We dumped our stuff because we weren’t allowed to officially check-in yet and then we spent headed out to do some exploring. 

First glass of Hungarian Wine

Sisters

It was hot. Like, really hot. 38 degrees and sunny. Hot even for me and I am ALWAYS cold and absolutely love the heat. We started out in my favorite place in Budapest - the castle on the lake. It’s where I went ice skating in the winter and it was so cool to see it surrounded by actual water with little boats you can take a ride on. Next we tried to go see the island, but it was closed due to flooding. I was incredibly dissappinted. So we changed plans and went up to see castle number two and parliament. After loads of walking we headed back to the hostel to check-in, shower and meet Arpad for dinner. He took us to an all-you-can-eat Hungarian buffet. It was delicious and we ate a lot. Then we had a few drinks at several different bars before heading home around 3am. There was no AC in the hostel, so none of us slept very well and getting up and moving the next morning was a little rough. 

Exhausted in Front of Parliament

Hanging Out

Once we got up and moving we headed to the Synagogue, followed by the House of Terror which is a museum about the Holocaust with a focus on Hungary. As weird as it is to say, it was a wonderful museum despite the horrific topic. After the museum we went to the mall so Monika and Nico could buy swimsuits and then we headed back to the hostel to freshen up and again, meet Arpad for dinner. We coated our bellies with some greasy street food, langos, and then went to a nice outside bar next to the ferris wheel for some wine spritzers. Then Arpad’s friend, Tamas, joined us. Over the course of the trip, he earned the title ‘broken lion’ because he had a cast on his arm, a scratched up face and a bandaged nose as a result of two incidents within the past week. We had a long night, tried lots of Palinka and other Hungarian drinks and ended the night at a club where we danced to terrible music. When we decided to switch locals, Nico realized he didn’t have his phone, so while he and Arpad went to look for it, broken lion took us girls back home. 

Saturday was a long day. In the morning, Olivia, Monika and I went to St. Stephen’s Basilica and then we met up with Arpad and Nico and headed to the biggest and most popular bath house in Budapest. It was enormous. We spent the first hour or so in the outside pools and then it took us several hours to enjoy all the different indoor pools and saunas. When we were all tired, wrinkled prunes, Raeka picked us up and took us to museum night. 

Walking Across the Water

Unfortunately we only made it to one museum successfully. We saw the Helmut exhibit, which I absolutely loved. It was about his life and his photographs and most of them were very striking. Then we walked around Heroe’s Square before broken lion picked us up and started our ‘Budapest by night’ tour. They took us to see parliament, the citadel and the freedom statue. Then we stopped for Kebab and went to go see a special architectual building and the surrounding areas. Then we tried to go to another museum, but it ended up being closed earlier than the website had said so we decided to go to Tesco and get some souveneirs before heading home. 

Arpad met us at 6am the next morning and escorted us to the bus station and saw us off. By the afternoon we were back in Kraków and completely exhausted. 

Langos for the first time!

After our Budapest extravaganza, we took a nap, had some Polish food, an then, at night we went to a going away party for my friend William. The next day Olivia and I prepared for our trip to Ireland and packed up my life because I had to move again. In one day we managed to pack everything and move all of my stuff into my friend William’s basement. I had to be out of my apartment, the day we arrived back in Kraków from Ireland - poor planning on my part. We slept only a couple hours and then headed to the airport at 4am and by 10am we were already in Dublin. 

Clubbing