Day 5 (Continued): Mass in a Castle, Salt in the Mines, and Chocolate for Dinner

Sunday, March 10

        I love Poland.  It is really cold, but I still love it here.  The country is beautiful, the people are genuine and friendly, the culture is rich and Catholic.  Today, we went to Mass in the Cathedral…which is part of a castle!!  It was very different than any Italian churches I’ve been in, very medieval (I think), with statues of knights and kings.  It’s decorated with a lot of gold, not so many mosaics as in Rome.  St. Stanislaus is buried in the Krakow cathedral.  Mass was beautiful.  An outstanding choir sang, and the long Polish homily provided for a good time of reflection and meditation.

Wawel Castle

After Mass, we went to a museum dedicated to Blessed John Paul II in the house he lived in when he was bishop of Krakow.

JPII with a kangaroo, haha

Papal cassock and shoes

JPII's kayak!!

John Paul II's personal chapel in his apartment when he was Archbishop of Krakow

We also did some shopping at the Polish market that morning.

Polish Market

One of my classmates purchased this wonderful hat

We went on a tour of the salt mines this afternoon, about half an hour outside of Krakow.  I know what you’re thinking—salt mines?  Big woop.  Well, that’s what I was thinking anyway.  However, I changed my mind when I saw this:

            EVERYTHING IS MADE OUT OF SALT.  You could lick the walls!  I did!  They were salty indeed.  The miners sculpted all these beautiful statues and carved incredibly intricate floors (some even taking two years to finish!) in the mines because they knew the person of Christ crucified and wanted a place to pray down in the mines.  Amazing!  After all their regular work, carrying 50kg of salt on their backs all day while doing intense, life-threatening labor, they love Jesus so much, they put careful, delicate, long, hard work into creating grand chapels.  Wow.

            This evening, we met two Polish University students who took us to a chocolate factory!  Did I mention I love Poland and Polish people?  They were so great.  We spent at least two hours with them.  Peter and Olah (from the Polish name equivalent to the English ‘Alexandria’) study in Krakow.  They are also both in scouts.  Talking with us, they got to practice their English and we got to learn a lot about Polish culture and our new friends.  I talked to Peter a lot about scouts and university.  He is studying mechanical engineering and dreams of one day driving on the Indy 500 track.  He loves Indy car racing!  I found that kind of funny.  I will probably send him a post card when I get back to Indiana.

My roommate, pouring her chocolate tea!  Why have I never thought of chocolate tea before?  It was so good!

            After having chocolate for dinner and making new Polish friends, we were all exhausted and came back to the apartment and went to bed, which is where I am headed after I finish this post (which I have to write sitting on a stool in the bathroom because people are sleeping in my bedroom).

            Also, we all cannot stop talking in our Polish family accent now.  Seriously!  AND we found long lost family cousin in salt mine working as tour guide…you had to be there…