A Mermaid in Denmark, waffles in Zakopane and giraffes in Kraków!

It’s wonderful to be back in Europe! It has been almost a year since our last visit, so it feels good to be back. I love the cramped, long, uniquely European streets, parks and grandiose churches. I know also  enjoy taking short walks to the less glamorous Polish grocery chain Żabka.

We also nourish our cultural spirits: Dean and I saw the Max Ernst exhibition, we visited Wawel castle (pictures below) and our family graveyard. We were also lucky to see a one hundred year old Villa pod Jedlamiin Zakopane and very old little wooden houses in Chochołów ! Gorgeous!

I visit Galeria Krakowska (shopping center) almost every day. How will I pack to the US with all these goodies? During hot days, we took advantage of its indoor playground, where recently I exchanged a few words with a French mother. She even complimented me on my French accent- it’s really good to be back! With summer sales, I somehow usually end up in the kids departments, with the exception of couple of shopping sprees with my style adviser – my younger sister, who helped me uptade my wardrobe for coming autumn.

On the way to Kraków we stayed for a week in Copenhagen. I visited this town a long time ago, but, this time we wanted to see Dean’s cousin and his growing family. We also wanted to experience once again the Danish series Borgen and maybe even see ‎Birgitte Nyborg peeking out from a window of the Danish parliament?

Well we did not see her, but we saw a lot of babies. Denmark is probably the best place in the world to raise children. In the park and on the streets there was probably not even a single nanny. It seemed parents (including fathers) are spending a lot of time with their small children. What a difference compared to the US playgrounds – We were delighted.

We booked our rental through AirBnB. We chose a small apartment not far from the zoo and the beautiful park Frederiksberg Have (let’s try to pronounce it correctly in Danish 🙂 Our place had a children’s room and of course a lot of toys, so Rose quickly adapted to the new scenery. She LOVED the park.

We walked around the center of Copenhagen, visited the amusement park Tivoli, tasted Turkish and Greek buffets, the only places where dining costs were bearable. We wanted to take a day trip to Sweden, but apparently because the influx of refugees, the security measures were tightened, so we decided against going. The Danish town of Roskilde with its Viking Ship Museum also has to wait for next time.

Now we are back in my hometown Kraków, where we are relaxing at my parents’ apartment. There are so many extra hands available to help! How will I manage back in the US? Rose tries the Polish delicacies of her grandmother, and I feed her with Polish porridges and other goodies. It seems that she loves dancing to any kind of music, so before bedtime she and her Grandpa rave to anything from Dire Straits, Italian love songs or Prodigy tunes .. She also finally has a lot of opportunities to play with Polish children. I would be very happy if she established friendships here. But now mainly she takes part in an intensive course of the Polish language, just by being here. For now, even without visible effects, it seems to us that she is starting to understand more and more, at least then when she feels like it…

I was also very happy that I finally took a Dean and Rose to my favorite city of Zakopane, located in the Tatry mountains. The trip was a success (except the 3.5 h drive).

We had a lot of the Zakopane experience: Kościeliska Valley (I admit that we used a horse carriage), gofry– waffles (look on my Instagram) on Krupówki avenue, Polish folk dining avenue and even a romantic couple spa.

I do miss our home in Berkeley, but I am very pleased with the stay in Kraków during warmer month of August. The time here passes more slowly than in California. People sit longer in the gardens, and talk to each other on park benches.

In Denmark we initiated a new tradition. We started to prepare the table for breakfast in the evening day before. My Dad has already picked up on our wonderful idea:) This will help us to eat together, likely in a hurry, but at least at the table together. Let us bring something significant back from our European travels.

Beware- I added a lot of pictures!:)