JPII - We still love you!

I am not sure what the official gift should be for your wife on your five month wedding anniversary. So I took her to a salt mine. Not just any salt mine however, but the fantastic salt mine outside Krakow that the UNESCO people added to their world heritage list in 1978. After the trip, a gift of bath salts was purchased, to be safely carried home to a life where accommodation generally includes a bath tub. The mines are 350 metres deep and were first built in the 1400s. Everything down there is made of salt, including a church, sculptures and the tables in the 115 metres below the surface coffee shop. The one irony however is that when we purchased some hot chips after the tour, they were lacking in salt and a shaker could not be found. To paraphrase an old saying: Salt, Salt everywhere but not a bit to eat.

So yes we are in Poland, and more specifically Krakow. This is the city that gave the world JPII and they really really love him here. A 20 something tour guide yesterday managed to point out at least 20 buildings that had some obscure JPII connection. And, he did it with sincerity. There are more nuns in this city than there were in Italy. There are more people crying in the churches here than there were in Italy and it is kinda weird.

Nothing should however take away from this town and its beauty. Apparently it is now firmly on the tourist trail. The purchase of about 150 6 seat golf carts a year back shows that when it comes to shipping tourists around its cobbled streets, the Poles will think outside the box. We refused the golf cart and agreed to walk.

We made the trip here on an overnight train from Prague (the details of which Cathy will set out in a future post). We were glad to leave Prague. There is something rotten about that city that you would not suspect at first glance. Firstly it is the new European pickpocket capital. Secondly every single waiter has his own scam for adding more money to your bill (our favourite was charging a 19% service fee on top of the 19% GST - Clever!). Thirdly, for the first time on this trip, we saw 2 blokes injecting themselves - and they weren't diabetics before you ask the question. Fourthly, there were that many British men in the city on stag weekends that it makes you wonder what type of a nation England really is. Apparently they like to think that Australians drink a lot of beer. We really can't compete with a nation that sees skulling and vomiting in the street of a foreign town as sport. It really is a beautiful city but it needs to get its shit together before people see it for what it is. An old beautiful city full of disgusting immoral people.

Seems like I'm missing home today. Some things that are making me miss home:

1. A man is leading the AFL goal kicking that I have virtually never heard of. What is happening at home when Mark Williams can be leading the AFL goal kicking?

2. Gee I miss cold milk. Most countries in this continent survive solely on UHT milk. Then when they do serve milk they serve it warm so your Corn Flakes taste like wet housing insulation. Never would I believe that I would miss proper milk but I do.

3. We are seriously concerned that the device we are using to carry our digital photographs is not working correctly. I have visions of us being left with only half our photos (the ones that I managed to burn on to a DVD the other day). The other half were "not there" according to the Kodak guy. Another guy said that our memory sticks "wouldn't read" in his computer today. Without wanting to sound whiny, I just want to get the box and the memory sticks home to Melbourne where smart people can figure out what is going on. Its all a bit depressing really.

Anyway enough whining, we are off to Auschwitz tomorrow so life could be much worse I suppose.

Til next time.