Poland

At the great market situated nearby, there hung a few shirts for sale: Polish football jerseys, "Polska" and ones with Pope John Paul II's face.

Poland is a devoutly catholic country (even reflected by the relatively conservative dress of most women going out at night) and I had heard about their pride in their native son, Karol Józef Wojtyla, more comonly known as Pope John Paul II. I considered buying the shirt for novelty sake just as I considered buying a "Free Winona" shirt. In the end, I decided to save the money for food and beer.

Dan, Gordon and I found a place in Kazimierz (old Jewish district of Krakow) that had awesome food at great prices. In fact, I had the same exact meal for lunch on my last day in Krakow!

On Poland, my friend Lukasz and I have had a lot of discussions about the massive amount of investments put into its infrastructures and its economical resurgence since joining the EU. It clearly shows in Krakow where medieval streets meld with boutique shops and you can feel the city's looking to better times ahead. I found the people in Poland warm and very welcoming and extremely willing to practice their English!

My train ride from Prague to Krakow on the other hand was a less pleasant experience. I took the overnight train and had a compartment where people would come in, sit, take a look to see if you were guarding your stuff or whether you were awake, then leave. Sometime in the early morning, I even saw some people peaking in to check.

Poland has been a gastronomical paradise. The grilled Kielbasa with onions and mustard was absolutely gold! While I didn't have the chance to visit Warsaw and Wroclaw like I wanted, it is definitely something I'd like to do next time I'm in the region!

And so, on my last afternoon in Krakow as I'm admiring Wawel castle, two well dressed men approach me and start talking to me in English. Since the Polish people have been so nice I decided not to use my customary dismissal.

"Hello, we're with the Jehova's Witness and we'd like to talk to you about ..."

Damn. Maybe I should have bought that Pope shirt.