Poland

Now that I have been back from Poland for a week, I figured it was high time for me to tell you a little bit about the trip!  Let me just say that until Pope Francis' election Poland was the highlight of my semester - it was just phenomenal!  We started our Polish Pilgrimage in Warsaw where we stayed with host families.  Truly it was the Polish people and the Polish culture that made this trip what it was - I cannot even begin to describe how hospitable they were.  Several times complete strangers went out of their way to help us, or to do something nice for us.  Our host families were no different.  In fact, March 8th is Women's Day in Poland, and so our 20 year old host son got up early to make a fancy breakfast for all of the girls - it was so nice!
Warsaw itself was great - we saw sites associated with several Polish saints - St. Maximilian Kolbe and Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko.  Then after two days in Warsaw we took the train to
Częstochowa - Poland's main pilgrimage site dedicated to Mary.  The Jasna Gora monastery there is home to the famous Black Madonna painting believed to have been painted by St. Luke.  The grounds of the monastery were magnificent, but once again they were surpassed by the faith of the Polish people.  It was an ugly weekday, and yet the people were coming to the shrine in droves!  It was beautiful!  

Krakow Cathedral

From Częstochowa we journeyed on to Krakow where we spent the remainder of our week.  Krakow is a magical city - one of my favorite that I have visited so far.  While in Krakow we visited the Wawel Castle, St. Mary's Basilica (a gorgeous gothic church), the famous market square, and the Cathedral (the same cathedral that Pope John Paul II was responsible for as Archbishop of Krakow).  We also went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine.  Let me just say that I was not all that enthused about the idea of visiting a salt mine, it sounded kind of boring to me; but it was one of the highlights of the whole trip!  There are huge salt chambers, great salt lakes, and countless chapels carved entirely out of salt so that the miners could attend Mass before working.  It really was incredible.  We also visited the concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  It was horrible - it was just so heavy, I just can't imagine how people can be so cruel to other human beings.  But we ended the trip on a high note with a trip to the Divine Mercy Shrine, which was one of the most powerful parts of the whole trip!  

Fooling around at the Vistula River Overlook

I really cannot say enough good things about our trip to Poland!  Everything was just fantastic; from the country to the weather (it snowed a lot - I have been missing the snow) to the landscape to the food to the people to the culture, it was all great!  Like the salt mines, Poland was not exactly something I had on my radar screen coming over here; I think that just made the trip that much sweeter.  Let me just add that when I say sweeter I mean that also in the literal sense - I honestly believe that chocolate is a staple of the Polish diet - I ate more chocolate in Poland than I think I've ever eaten in my life.  I am either going to come home hating chocolate or addicted to it - we'll see!