Welcome To The New Blog!

So here we are in Krakow, Poland! The day finally came that we left Ireland - I never thought we would have ended up in Poland but here we are. So why are we even here you might ask? Believe me, I asked Mike the same question - why in God's name would I want to move there?!?! I mean, if we're not going back home at least give me Paris or Milan!!  I'll admit I knew nothing of Poland, only all the bad Polish jokes I heard growing up. There are so many Polish people in Ireland, and times were so bad while we were there I was thinking, if they all came to Ireland then it must really be bad in Poland. But as it turns out, the economy is much better here (well, at least they aren't on the verge of a bailout!). One of the reasons Mike's firm decided to open an office is here is that there are a lot of young people in Krakow (lots of colleges) and since BBH is looking to hire about 200 people over the first year or so there was the best opportunity to do it here (they also looked into Galway and Limerick in Ireland). Plus it would be much more inexpensive to do it here than the other places in Europe. Mike was very impressed with the city and only had good things to say about it. Finally I was able to visit and after that I warmed up to the idea. It is a beautiful city and it's amazing walking around a thinking about all of the history here - most of the city was spared from destruction during WWII. We did a tour and saw Schindler's factory which has been transformed into a museum about the German occupation of Poland during the war. After that we drove through the old Jewish ghetto and saw a couple of pieces of the wall that surrounded it (in the shape of tombstones) that are still standing. Auschwitz/Birkenau concentration camps are about an hour away, but we decided not to go there because I didn't want to be totally overwhelmed on my first visit there. We went into Wawel Castle (pronounced Vavel) and wandered around the Old Town and ducked into some of the many cafes and bars that are all around the main square. I really liked it! So after 4 years of being away from the USA, I am pretty used to living abroad and I hate to say it, I guess I really wasn't ready to go back so I was up for a new adventure! The kids are still young enough, BBH had asked Mike to commit to five years but neither of us wanted to stay that long so we said 2- 3 years and then the wheels were set in motion. 


So what are my first observations of Poland? 

1. It's so cheap! I remember when we first got to Ireland we were shocked by how expensive everything was, but now it's the other way around. We went out to eat, I had eggs Mike had a panini, we had maybe 3 drinks and some fries and it cost 48 Polish zloty (Poland is a member of the EU but have not adopted the Euro as currency yet - and I haven't a clue as to why not!). That equals about 11 Euro, or $14. That would have cost about 50 euro in Dublin. Later on we went into a bar and ordered two drinks, Mike had a beer and I sampled the local drink of cherry vodka (Soplicka Wisniowa) and it cost 15 PLN, or 3.50 Euro! If we don't save some money while living here then we are idiots.
2. It's definitely an Eastern block country. The main square (called Rynek Glowny) is beautiful but if you drive 5 minutes out of town it's very grey, concrete-y depressing Communist-country looking (yes I know that is nowhere near proper English). Lots of chain link fences everywhere. Blech. I'll just make sure to hang around the main square.
3. The people need a lesson in fashion - my eyeballs hurt from the number of acid washed jeans I spotted on people. And bad red or blue pleather jackets. Or we would spot a really pretty girl in a decent outfit that she killed by wearing a pair of shoes fit for her grandmother. And lots of nude pantyhose - did Kate Middleton bring those back into fashion? Damn her.
4. The service is amazing. Maybe the waitstaff in Dublin was so bad that now I feel like we are being treated like royalty - we ate out a lot and our main measure of good service is how quickly they refill our empty water glasses. I don't think we ever had an empty glass sitting in front of us. Of course this also applied to our wine glasses so during one dinner while I was trying to talk to Mike I was like, why am I slurring my words?? So we decided to call it an early night...
5. It's a very religious city. There are nuns and priests everywhere! Time to start going back to church. Especially since Ava will be making her First Communion this year (note to self: find English-speaking church for us to go to)
6. The driving is horrendous! While the relocation guy drove us around to look at different housing options I thought we were going to die on several occasions (and of course all I could think of was our kids sitting back in Dublin and we don't even have a will...). Come to think of it, it reminded me a lot of Boston drivers - speeding, tailgating, weaving in and out of traffic. I'm not used to this because Dublin drivers are not that crazy.