Writings on the Wall [Krakow in Polish]
When you put one random mind with another random mind, you get one random situation.
For example, some random day in October one of my roommates said, “let’s go to Poland” my response: YES, lets go! without any hesitation or contemplation on the fact that Poland just sounnnnnds boring [in my most dramatic voice]. Not only did I say YES, quite enthusiastically I might add, I said (in all of my randomness) lets take an overnight train to Prague (Czech Republic) too.
side note: I must say that I love the whole “2 for 1” idea, you know "buy one get one free" or "buy one get one half off".
2nd sidenote: This only pertains to food. traveling.concert tickets. etc. not clothes.shoes. or handbags(if you can buy these things at such a deal, are they really gonna last? i. think. not).
I figured, why not go to two countries in one trip, because when will I ever be back in Poland? (Prague maybe, but Poland. I don’t see it)
Anyway, after each random thought was meshed together we each bought a one way ticket to Krakow, Poland (after a bit of research, I realized that the train ticket from Poland to the Czech Republic had to be purchased in Poland). Weeks passed before we actually began to somewhat plan our trip, we only knew of 2 things to do in Krakow, go to Auschwitz (former concentration camp during the Holocost) about 1 hour outside of Krakow and the Wieliczka salt mines (which I actually didn't go to, but I heard was great). Prague? I'll discuss that later.
Fast forward 3 weeks, myself, 2 of my roommates and one of my favorite people [Jesse] step off the plane in Krakow, Poland. The first words that came out of our mouth, “what are we doing in Poland?!"
As our minds finally wrapped around the thought that we were actually in Poland, excitement and wonder commenced as we began our journey through the streets of Krakow. Dark at 4:30 pm when we arrived, that didn't stop us from our first adventure: polish food. Our hostel told us about a traditional polish restaurant and of course we ended up there, 4 loud Americans ready to try something new. We learned at that dinner, some polish people do not speak when they go out to eat, we were literally the only ones talking (that was strange, they took "not talking with your mouth full" to a whole different level). Anyways, this was our food (it was more appetizing than it looks): Pierogi, Croquette, Saurkraut w/sausage and a fried pancake with ham, cheese and leeks.
After we ate, our journey really began and eastern Europe didn't seem quite so foreign anymore, we got used to the silence in some places and they actually smile in Poland. Also, they are very spiritual here, there were churches everywhere, we went into one church that was only for praying and it was full of people (post on that soon). We learned four key phrases that were imperative to know, hello (Dzień dobry), thank you (Proszę), how much does this cost (ile to Kosztuje) and cheers(Na zdrowie!). Naturally, when we said the aforementioned words in Polish, they spoke back to us in Polish resulting in a state of confusion, making me wish they spoke French. In the end, Poland was better than I thought, although I'm quite sure I won't be going back, I will say that I do not regret "going to Poland once in my lifetime".
From the food, to vintage camera shopping to Auschwitz, speaking broken 4 word polish, wandering around the jewish quarter and just seeing this part of eastern Europe was amazing. To be on the grounds of Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau first hand was possibly the single most thought provoking experience that I've ever encountered in my life. It is one thing to read about something in a book or watch it on tv, but it is another to actually be there, see it and feel it. These first couple of posts are going to be on the city of Krakow and then I will take you on my journey into Auschwitz and Auchwitz-Birkenau.
Old Lady [friends]
I went [to church]
Old Town [grand square, Krakow]
bisous,
Jennifer Pauline
My original plan was to head over to Jeu de Paume and hopefully find some remnants of the Richard Avedon exhibit that I missed back in September, but when I arrived, their doors were closed and in true parisian spirit, I walked through the Tuilerie gardens to the other museum I've been waiting to see, L'Orangerie. This, I must add is why I love Paris, you can wake up one day and go say hello to Demarchelier, Monet or Avedon and you can even head over to the Picasso mueseum to see many of his works and if you're really feeling artsy you can take the 1 metro to the Louvre and see the famous Mona Lisa painting.
The water lillies are actually a series of about 250 oil paintings by Claude Monet, which depicted the garden from his house in Giverny. The Orangerie houses 8 of these amazing paintings, while the rest are scattered all around the world.
When I attended fashion week back in October, one of the presenting designers Akris, was inspired by the water lillies for some of the pieces in his collection. See the video below, I love it, and Chanel Iman working her dress :)
"I have Patrick!"- the infamous line from The Devil Wears 
The exhibition at l'espace Louis Vuitton was focused on young Korean artists, entitled "Metamorphoses". Filled with various art forms such as paintings and sculptures, to a missile with a mini city on top of it and dancing figures of North Korean and South Korean soldiers (they were positioned in a way so that they could never actually link up, representing the current tension between the Northern and Southern part of the country)
