Wroclaw
We left Saturday, December 26th and flew into Wroclaw (pronounced Roe-slaf), Poland, in the afternoon. We didn't really want to see anything in particular in Wroclaw, though...that's just where Ryanair flies into in Poland. So we got dinner there (we went with a guy we met on the plane. He struck up a conversation by asking to look at my breviary, because he wanted to see the words of the Magnificat in English...so I figured he was an ok guy), walked around a bit, and then headed back to the hostel and went to bed. In the morning, we went to a Polish mass and then caught a train to our real destination in Poland: Krakow.
Krakow
We were on a pretty tight time schedule in Krakow, because we were there less than 24 hours, and there were two main things we wanted to see--stuff about JPII, because that's where he was bishop before being elected Pope, and the Divine Mercy Shrine that's also is the site of St. Faustina's remains.
The house where JPII used to live has been turned into a museum. When I looked it up online, it said it was closed on Mondays, so we decided to go there on Sunday afternoon, and to the Divine Mercy Shrine on Monday morning. So our train arrived, and we headed straight to the museum. We found it with no problem; here it is from the outside:
Those doors to the left of me are Bishop Carol Wotyla's house!
Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that it was also closed on December 25, 26, and 27. So we didn't get to go inside...but just standing on the street where he lived was pretty cool anyway.
This is my sad face, because that sign is informing us that the museum is closed.
The house was conveniently right by the cathedral, though, which WAS open, so we got to go inside that. We also climbed up the small belltower.
This is the bell that's up there--it's HUGE. And the last time it rang was when JPII died.
By that point, it was getting dark, so we went and checked in to our hostel. Then we walked to the city center to wander around and find a place to eat. Like in lots of other European towns, there was a Christmas market in the main square, and lights strung around the main streets...it was neat. After one failed attempt, we found a restaurant that had cheap traditional Polish food. Katie and I both had perogi, a type of ravioli that usually has potato in it, I think, but we ordered the meat version instead. And since things were so cheap, we each got a Coke, too! And after dinner, we splurged even further by going to a different little shop and having pieces of cake, which seemed to be a sort of traditional Polish thing too. And even with all that, we spent less than we would on a one course meal back in Rome. It was awesome! After that we went back to the hostel and played cards, and then went to bed.
The next morning, we got up early and went to the Divine Mercy Shrine. It was pretty incredible. I guess my devotion to Divine Mercy developed the most from Totus Tuus. It's pretty important in the program--we prayed the chaplet together as a team after Evening Prayer every day. And JPII is connected to both of those things, too, because "Totus Tuus" was his Papal motto (of course I know that that originally came from Louis de Montfort, but JPII and New Evangelization were why it was picked for the program, I think), and he had a large role in promoting devotion to Divine Mercy, establishing Divine Mercy Sunday and canonizing St. Faustina and all. And that's evident at the Shrine--there's a big statue and some pictures of him there. So maybe this is a confusing explanation, but basically being at the Shrine was like being at the heart of several important things in my life, and they were all coming together...it was pretty cool. I love all those things, Divine Mercy, and New Evangelization, and Totus Tuus, and even John Paul II, because they're what's happening in the Church NOW. I love Rome for all its tradition and antiquity, too, of course (and I think it's part of New Evangelization to love that stuff), but it's pretty exciting to be around the contemporary movements of the Church, and I definitely sensed that there in Krakow.
And not only is the faith contemporary, the architecture is contemporary, too, as in "modern and funny-looking" :-) Well, part of it, anyway. The chapel with St. Faustina's remains is more traditional. Here's the inside of that:
In the front, to the left of the altar, you can kind of see a picture of Divine Mercy, and St. Faustina's remains are below that.
And here's the other chapel, that contains the second image ever painted of Divine Mercy. The first was apparently really small and painted as a gift for someone, and then the artist was asked to do another larger one, for popular devotion. So it's is essentially the original...
Pretty crazy, huh?
When we were finished at the Shrine, the rest of our day was a series of well-timed travel moves: we caught a tram back to the train station just in time to catch our train back to Wroclaw, where we took a bus to the airport and then flew to Brussels. It worked out amazingly well, especially considering that we planned most of it out the night before, and got lucky with train times.
Brussels
So we got to Brussels, checked in to our hostel (which was in a building that Van Gogh used to work in!), and went to bed shortly after. The main thing on our agenda to see the next day in Brussels was the Tassel House, designed by Victor Horta. It's a prime example of Art Nouveau architecture, and we saw slides of it a lot last year, especially one memorable one of a certain set of stairs inside that house. So we really wanted to see those stairs! It's been converted to the "Victor Horta museum", sort of...mostly that just means you can go in and look at the house, or rather that the house IS the museum. Here's the outside:
We wandered and saw a few other things in the morning, and then made our way out of the city center to the house a little after 12, only to discover when we got there that's it's only open from 2-5 every day. So we had some time to kill. We got lunch (and had fries and mayonnaise for the first of a few times--apparently it's big in that part of Europe), and then stopped in to an art store to look around. It turned out to be one of the most incredible art stores I've ever been in, just based on the variety of things they sold--it was like a craft store+an art store+a drafting supplies store+an office supplies store. So we had plenty to look at while we waited. When we got back to the Tassel House, there was a line outside. It wasn't very long, but it was moving extremely slowly. We decided it was worth it, and so we waited in the what we thought was the cold (we found out what cold really was when we got to Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin...but at the time, it was cold) for over an hour, and then went in! It was really cool; I like Art Nouveau architecture. It's very flowy and natural looking, but elegant. We went through the whole thing, though, and didn't see those stairs...and at the very end, there's a small gift shop. We saw a postcard with the picture we remembered of the stairs, so we picked it up, looked at the back...and realized the name of the place where the picture was taken was NOT the building we were in. All along, we thought we were in the Tassel House, but we weren't. Fail. We checked a map and realized we were only a few streets away from the REAL Tassel House, though, so after laughing at ourselves a bit we walked over there. It's a private residence, so we couldn't go in after all, but at least we saw the outside (and realized our mistake--it would have been a bit embarassing if we never had). So here's the real thing:
Unfortunately, it was dark by the time we finally got there.
Bruges
After that, we went to the train station and caught a train to Bruges. Apparently the locals spell it "Brugge", as we found out from the sign in the train station.
This is proof that I was LITERALLY "In Bruges", like the name of a good movie that came out a few years ago.
Our hostel there was awesome. We knew it would be as soon as we booked it back in Rome a while ago, because the name was "Charlie Rockets". When we got there, we realized it was a bar. Now, it's not uncommon for hostels, especially big ones, to have a small bar in the lobby. But at Charlie Rockets, it was more like a bar with a few rooms upstairs so the bartenders could make a little extra money. It added to the character. And our room was actually quite nice--it was only a 5 bed room, and we had our own bathroom and shower. It was hard to get to, you had to go up a staircase, down a hall, down some stairs, around a corner, up another staircase...the bartender had to take us there the first time so we would know how to find it. Katie and I were the first to check in to the room, and as were sitting there figuring out what our next move would be, were remembered that it was advertised as a mixed gender room, so there was a possibility that our roommates would be guys. And sure enough, right after that occured to us, three guys showed up wondering if it was the right room--the bartender had apparently left them on their own to navigate their way up. Two of them were Italian, from Milan, and one was from Mexico but was studying in Europe. They all spoke English very well, and were all grad students of some sort, I think. We decided to all go out to dinner together (Katie and I got waffles...Belgian waffles), and then ended up getting a drink and playing cards at the Charlie Rockets bar afterwards too. It was a lot of fun, and added to the overall awesome-ness of that hostel experience. Also, in general I don't like beer that much...but I did like Belgian beer:-)
The next day was sight-seeing day in Bruges. One of the main attractions was climbing a tall tower on the main square. The tower features prominently in the movie. Unfortunately, two things sort of went wrong about it: 1. it was super foggy, so we couldn't see anything from the top and 2. apparently they didn't actually film the movie there, because it doesn't look like the tower in the movie:-( But here's the view from the top!
Isn't Bruges beautiful? Oh wait...you can't see it. Here's a better picture, from the ground, that captures some of the charm:
We also got some chocolate while we were there, and it was delicious. Belgian chocolate, waffles, and beer all lived up to their reputations, in my opinion.
The next day was New Year's Eve! We took an early train to Paris. But this post is already long enough, so that will have to wait til another time...
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