last of krakow and also zilina

The morning after, the group went to the Bunkier, which is one of the few contemporary art spaces in Krakow. There were 2 exhibitons going on: one of an artist from Albania about fleeing the country that consisted of various video pieces, and the World Press Photo exhibition, which is a surefire way to make yourself depressed about the state of the world. Following lunch I tried out the Krakow arachaeology museum, which was a strange combination of dioramas of ancient Poland and a random assortment of ancient Egyptian mummies. I also tried to go to a museum that showcased an 15th century cult group that worshipped a silver chicken (seriously) but it was closed for repairs. Sigh. I did a lot of walking through a beautiful park that runs through the center of Krakow, though, which was great.



For our last morning in Krakow I went to the old Jewish district, Kazimierz. I say old because there definitely aren't any Jews there anymore, or for that matter, in most of Poland. Kazimierz is now a large tourist attraction--half of it is filled with trendy pubs and clubs and the other half is basically a Jewish theme park without the Jews. This all sounds very negative, I'm sure, and Kazimierz is beautiful, but the whole sense of it is just rather depressing when you see restaurants with names like "Alef" or "Rubenstein" and contrast it with the anti Semitism that is still strong in Poland today. It's a little weird, and probably the reason why I never felt totally great about Krakow or all of Poland.

The next morning we went on another 5 hour bus ride, back to Slovakia to visit the city of Zilina. Our penzion was kind of creepy and the proprietor bailed out on us and said we could only stay there for a night. While our academic director pondered this dilemma, we ate traditional Slovak food at a restaurant that looked like a place Daniel Boone would have eaten at--animal pelts, log cabin, fake guns. I had ovoce knedliky, which are fruit dumplings. Day two in Zilina: we went to Stanica, the objective for our visit. Stanica is a train station that is simultaneously an art space. It has a gallery and a space for kids' workshops and a beautiful theater. We got to help out by doing various chores. I raked leaves and it was a blast. That night we saw an amazing dance performance in the Stanica theater with music by Godspeed You Black Emperor. (I didn't sleep too well due to a disco party being held in our hotel that night, but oh well.) Áfter some mishaps the following morning I eventually found the train station and it was snowing! Beautiful! And now back to Praha.