Article archive
Pani Anna Buriak
06/14/2012 09:59
Pani Anna Buriak is the lady whom we will visit in Polany. She’s a wonderful woman with an amazing story. I first met her back in 1991(?), when I visited our “home town” of Polany in search of any information on the Ardans. She told me where some of the Ardan family had lived before WWII, and...
The Lady with an Ermine
06/13/2012 09:51
The Lady with an Ermine is one of only a very few portraits painted by Leonardo da Vinci. In fact, there are many people (maybe even a majority) who consider this painting to be da Vinci’s masterpiece, head and shoulders above the Mona Lisa. Lucky for us, the Lady resides permanently in Kraków....
Side Trippin'
06/12/2012 15:38
A couple of days ago, I mentioned a possible side trip on the road to or from Polany. Today, I’d like to throw out a few other options as well.
Sanok
Sanok is a town in the Lemko region, not too far from Polany. There is a small castle there that houses a modest, but very nice exhibit of...
The Real Capital
06/11/2012 08:45
There’s a joke that goes something like, “What time does anything cultural end in Warsaw?” The answer is, “10PM, when the last person visiting from Kraków gets on the final train out of town.” Kraków was always the capital--culturally, politically or otherwise--of everything in Poland until...
Bigos
06/10/2012 15:20
Most people think of pierogi as being the quintessential Polish dish. While it is true that you can find them nearly everywhere you go, many Poles would actually tell you that the national dish is bigos. As a young kid, I don’t even remember hearing about this, let alone trying it. It was only...
Pierogi
06/09/2012 18:58
I can't believe that we've come this far and not had a discussion on pierogi!
The word pierogi is actually the plural of pieróg. In this case, the “i” on the end indicates that there is more than one, though “i” is only one of several ways to indicate plural nouns. In addition to being...
The Wawel Chakra and the Hanging Knife
06/08/2012 09:33
Here are two interesting Krakow tidbits that have absolutely nothing in common other than the fact that, unless someone points them out, you’ll likely miss them. Or, if you did see them you wouldn’t understand their significance.
The first is the Wawel Chakra. Actually, you can’t really see it,...
Jewish Culture Festival
06/07/2012 09:49
When I was first starting to put this website together, I made a list of things that I wanted to include, among them was the Jewish Culture Festival. At the time, I couldn’t find any information, but remembered it as usually being in June. I was a little bit disappointed, because I figured we...
Krakow-Tyniec Bike Ride, or Water Taxi
06/06/2012 08:39
We’ve spoken several times about how we would like to do “small” things when we’re on vacation. Sitting for a few hours on the square. Visiting a small exhibit. These are the kinds of things that make Krakow great. With that in mind, a relaxing side trip out of town to see the Benedictine...
Nikifor
06/05/2012 11:09
Nikifor was a Lemko artist from the spa town of Krynica. He is, for me anyway, one of the most interesting and curious characters that I’ve ever come across in my studies and travels around Poland. Although he frequently painted a few words onto his works, he was essentially illiterate, and very...
Items: 21 - 30 of 61