We're Back, and Ryan Air Sucks

We are home from a nice relaxing week in Mallorca, Spain. Our hotel was absolutely amazing, with incredible views of Port Soller. It was a new hotel that just opened in April so things didn't go as smoothly as we are used to, but  everyone there was very nice and we were able to get some much needed R&R. I am too lazy to upload photos now because I only have a short break before it's time to make dinner.

We flew Ryan Air which many of you may have never heard of before, but it's a budget airline based in the UK.  Apparently the flights are pretty cheap, but once you get to the airport you get charged for everything...your bag is 1 kg too heavy? €20 for that. Oh it's 4 kg too heavy? €80 for that. Your bag is   1 mm too big to fit in the overhead compartment? You need to check it, €50 for that. Etc etc etc. And they are really strict with carry ons - If you have a purse, a camera around your shoulder, a bag with a bottle of water and a magazine in it and a carry on suitcase, you have to put everything into the suitcase in order to board. There was some gossip in the news that they were even going to charge €1 to use the toilet on the plane. Once you are on the plane it's ugly (blue and bright yellow), the seats are 95% plastic and really uncomfortable, there is no TV in the seatback in front of you, and not even a pouch where you can put your things (and of course no air sickness bags just in case one of your kids gets airsick). When you buy a ticket you don't even get an assigned seat unless you pay extra (which we always do, and I honestly cannot understand why anyone would not), so it's a mad rush to board the plane with people cutting in line, pushing kids and anyone in their way just to get onto the plane. I watched a news program in Dublin once about a newswoman who became a Ryan Air flight attendant (apparently you just take a quick course to become one) and brought a hidden camera on board with her and I was horrified. The airline is successful because they are able to turn planes around quickly and make a certain number of flights per day - it turns out the attendants get yelled at if they actually check people's passports before they get on the plane because it slows things down. And because they have to get the planes back in the air so quickly they don't do a thorough cleaning of the inside (on the program someone had puked and they didn't even clean it up, the guy just threw some cologne on the floor!!). After flying with them once when Jack was a baby and then watching this program, I vowed never to fly them again. Unfortunately they are one of the only airlines that flies direct out of Krakow so we had no choice but to fly them to Mallorca. The staff was somewhat bearable in Krakow and it was pretty smooth checking in - we have a luggage scale so our bags were under the weight required, we each had one carry on, and Jack's stroller. I also brought along a booster seat (yes I am crazy paranoid mom who insists my kids are restrained in the car, Europeans are really lax about that) and the woman at the check-in desk told us to just fold it up in the stroller so it wouldn't fall out. The flight went smoothly, although I was still a little creeped out thinking about what dirty person sat in the seat before me, so I had the wipes out to try to wipe down all of the surfaces we were about to touch...On the flight back they were just awful. We had a 6:30 am flight so got to the airport at the insane time of 4:55 am, tired and cranky and quite honestly not in the mood to deal with any BS. When we checked in our bag was 1 kg too heavy - I wanted to open it up and take out maybe my pair of sneakers and a book and not pay the €20, but we were too tired to deal with it so we just decided to pay it. Then I mentioned that we had the booster seat, which I shouldn't have done because they said we had to pay another €20. I told them I would just fold it up into the stroller like we did on the way over but they were having none of that. I know they charge for everything and I can't say I was surprised by any of this, but they were just really F-ing rude to us and got 3 different people involved. I said I would just carry it on but of course it didn't fit in Jack's carry-on bag so we had to pay the €20. In order to check it in we had to walk to the opposite end of the airport which again we found ridiculous. As I said we weren't in the mood to deal with this so we may have muttered some not-so-child-friendly words while we walked away so I think that annoyed them. Once we got to the gate (after stopping to buy some bottles of water and a magazine), we were standing in line and one of the women from the check-in desk walked by us and muttered something in Spanish to her colleague, who then proceeded to come over and ask us to put Ava's carry-on suitcase in the little contraption they have to make sure it was the required size. Her suitcase happens to have a little pocket on the outside of it where she loves to stuff her stuffed animals and other treasures (junk) she has acquired during the trip. So when I tried to put her little dinky suitcase in the holder the pocket got caught up on it so I started jamming it in and the lady started yelling at me not to force it. I was thinking, if you make me pay €50 to check this bag that is clearly smaller than an everage carry-on I am going to come over and smack you upside the head with it. I took all of the junk out of the outside pocket and put it inside and turned around and the woman was gone. Then after waiting another 10 minutes a different person came over to us and checked Ava's bag once again  - just need to mention that they were  not doing this to any other passengers. Then 5 minutes later someone came over and told Mike he had to put the bag with the water and the magazines in it, into his briefcase. I thought Mike was going to punch the guy in the head but I think he knew that they would probably call the police on us and have us arrested so we just walked onto the plane biting our lips.

Once we sat down (we paid for seats so we were in rows 1 and 2, rows 1-5 are reserved for those who pay extra so they put little cards that say 'reserved' on the seats), someone sat down in the row behind us and the flight attendant came over and told him to move, those seats are reserved can't you read the sign?! Then she continued to roll her eyes to the other flight attendant whenever she encountered a passenger that annoyed her. This reminded me of a flight back to Dublin from Krakow, I was sitting in an exit row and the flight attendant asked (told) the man next to me to put his bag overhead and the guy didn't understand because he was Polish. So the flight attendant yelled at him, something about this being an English airline so I don't speak Polish so you'd better understand English and move your bag!!'. Then a little later in the flight when I got up to use the toilet he was standing in the back where they make the coffee, and he reached up under his shirt to put his deodorant on. Gross! Then during our flight while we are trying to sleep (did I mention it was 6:30 am??) they kept coming on the PA to try to sell smokeless cigarettes, calling cards, and other useless crap that clearly no one wanted to buy. Then when the plane lands they play this annoying racing music like they play at a racetrack, saying 'we arrived on time yet again!', patting themselves on the back...but when you get inside you have to stand around a wait 20 minutes for your bags. They really have the rudest airline staff I have ever encountered and the airline is not meant for any kind of civilized air travel.  I just hate, hate that I am going to have to fly them again!!

Okay, that's the end of my rant....

Travel

One of the things I was excited about when moving to Poland was its proximity to mainland Europe and places that I really want to visit, like Denmark, Sweden, and Greece. Closer = shorter plane ride for me to stress about. Well, it turns out that unlike Dublin, we can't really get anywhere from Krakow with a direct flight. I am not sure why, other than the fact that the airport is really small. We really wanted to go to Croatia but couldn't find a direct flight. Most of the direct flights we can get are with Ryan Air, which is an airline that I refused to fly when we lived in Dublin (for anyone who hasn't heard of it, it's a low cost airline but once you buy your cheap ticket they charge you for everything when you get to the airport. Plus I watched a news report where a reporter went under cover as a flight attendant and I was horrified by the care of the plane). Anyhoo, I have just had to suck it up because Mike has already booked us a trip to Majorca, which is a Balearic island off the south-eastern coast of Spain, in the Mediterranean Sea. We are flying Ryan Air which was the only way to do it without having a connection (or booking a charter flight/package through a travel agency). The worst part is that our flight back to Krakow is at 6:30 am!!! I have no idea how we are going to manage that one with 2 kids and no hours of sleep. Ah well, I am sure it will be worth it! We leave this coming Sunday, so it will be nice to have a relaxing vacation lying by the pool or on the beach and doing nothing, we need it after all of this moving stress.

Our new airport

Map of Majorca Island (Palma is the capital), for anyone who doesn't know where it is.

Screens

We finally got some screens up. Mike did a good job getting the one in the doorway up but unfortunately it was too short. I figured, something is better than nothing so we didn't bother trying to look for a longer one. It has these really neat magnetic tabs that help pull the pieces back together after you walk through it, so I am pretty happy. I might just take some extra material from the one in the kitchen window to cover the bottom because I remember being at my friend Cheri's house in high school and she left her back sliding glass door open and we watched about 15 Daddy long-leg spiders come running into her room from outside, one after the other before we got a chance to run over and shut the door. It really creeped me out and we all know how much I hate spiders.

We also got one up in the kitchen so I am hoping maybe  my next batch of herbs will fare better than the last, unless I bring home caterpillars eggs on them again. Gross!! We had to leave extra material in the bottom of the window pane to make room for the ledge in the window (for rain maybe?). I don't care how silly any of this looks, I am just happy to not have to my kitchen full of mosquitoes and flies. Now I just have to put one up in Jack's room, and then get back to the store to buy 2 new ones for the doors in ours and Ava's bedroom. Of course the heat wave seems to have passed, it has been raining and pretty cool lately, only about 65-70, but it still is nice to keep the windows open for some fresh air. 

R.I.P. Basil, Mint and Coriander

Well I tried to keep my poor plants going but when I came downstairs this morning they looked pretty far gone. I was surprised because it seemed like the devastation occurred overnight. I didn't notice them at first but Ava discovered tiny little green caterpillars all over the plants! Where did they come from?? The plants are inside the kitchen so I'm not sure how they got in. There were tons of little black dots all over the window sill- is that their poop? Gross. I tossed the plants outside and later noticed Ava letting the caterpillars (worms?) crawl all over her. That poor girl desperately needs a pet!! I'm really bummed not to have my herbs for cooking anymore. Any pointers on how to prevent this from happening again?

Caterpillar turds??

Can you spot the green critter?

It's hot

It's been really hot here. I knew we were going to get an actual summer in Krakow but I didn't realize how hot it would be. The first week we moved here it rained almost the whole week. It was so damp inside the house it took 3 days for some of my clothes to dry on the drying rack. Then it became warm and sunny and has been ever since which has been such a nice change from Dublin summers  - there have been a lot of thunderstorms though. The week the kids were in camp I think it was at least 95 every day, and got to 97 once or twice. The nice thing about it was that it's not at all as humid as NY or Boston so it's almost bearable. We don't have air conditioning in the house but luckily the downstairs stays relatively cool. Upstairs gets stuffy and it really wouldn't be a problem if we could just leave our windows open at night because it gets nice and cool after dark. The problem is that they don't have screens in the windows here which drives me nuts!! I said this when we lived in Dublin - why haven't they heard of this neat invention before?? There are too many mosquitoes, flies and moths to leave them open so I was worried about what we were going to do until I ventured out to a huge Home Depot-type store and found some do-it yourself screens. I was so excited, especially since the instructions are in pictures instead of words. Thank goodness for small miracles. Now I just have to find the time to actually put them up, because I hate doing stuff like this!

I was surprised the other day when I went into my cabinet to use my coconut oil and it was totally liquid! For those of you who haven't used it before, it's usually solid at room temperature. I really didn't think it was that hot inside the house but maybe it is?

Ice cream visit

On the way home from the gym yesterday I decided to try to stop at that ice cream place since I had the kids with me (good excuse). There was no line at all when we passed it on the way to the gym so I wasn't sure if it was the right place, but on the way home by the time I parked the car (up on the sidewalk, that's how you do it here apparently) and crossed the street there were about 10 people in line. Fortunately it was very quick, and they only had 7 flavors - vanilla, chocolate, strawberry raspberry, blueberry, one called delicacy, and I can't remember the other. I got the kids some chocolate and we stood out on the sidewalk to eat it. They sort of liked it, but it had bits of stuff inside that they didn't like - not sure if it was nougat, pieces of fruit, and bits of chocolate maybe? I forgot to bring my camera with me so I didn't get a picture of that the stuff was. They both ended up throwing it away about halfway through. Afterwards Ava decided she wanted to try to blueberry  next so I went back in and ordered that. I only paid for one but I think they gave me a free one for some reason, maybe because the woman behind the counter accidentally knocked over the basket of spoons so I picked them all up for her. I am pretty sure this was the blueberry, it was really good and you could tell there was fresh fruit inside it but I wasn't blown away by the place - it was no Smitty's in Falmouth!!  I definitely would never wait in that line if we go back. My favorite flavour is coconut anyway and there are a bunch of places on the main square that sell that so I will eat ice cream there if I ever want it.

Medical Update

I realized after I posted last night I should have given an update about Ava's arm - thankfully it cleared up on it's own, there are still some dots that look like pimples and what looks like some bruising under the skin, but it's not bothering her (or me) anymore.

I didn't make it to a pharmacy (Apteka) until yesterday but now at least I have the cream in case it happens again. I'm wondering how Polish medication compares to stuff from the US. When we were home for a visit two years ago and Jack had those awful sores from the vaccine reaction/unexplained phenomenon, he was on an antibiotic from Dublin and his pediatrician in Boston pretty much laughed at it saying it wasn't strong enough to do anything.

In other medical news, my back went out and I am desperately searching for some physiotherapy. The first time my back ever went out was during a trip to Myrtle Beach my senior year of high school - Poppy/Bruce very kindly let me borrow his truck to drive down there with all of my friends, so I was paranoid to let anyone else drive it so I did the whole 16 hour drive by myself. A couple of days after we arrived I bent over to tie my shoes and couldn't stand back up - it was the worst pain I had ever felt. I was prescribed pain meds and muscle relaxers which did nothing but make me a miserable grouch. The next time it went out was in college and I actually fainted in the bathroom because the pain was so bad - thankfully someone there sent me to physical therapy and ever since then I have been going pretty regularly to prevent it from going out-out and landing me on the couch for a week. Well since I haven't been to PT since Dublin, the inevitable happened - I was putting a heavy bag of groceries into the car and out it went. The same thing actually happened our first week in Krakow but that evening I had taken the kids to the pool in the Sheraton and there was this turbo jet in the pool that was so strong there were handles to hold on to because if you didn't hold them the force of the jet would propel you halfway across the pool. I stood with my back up against this for most of the time I was in the pool and the next morning I couldn't believe that my back was better when I got out of bed. The jets must have stopped the muscle spasms somehow (when I had an MRI years ago it showed 2 bulging discs, so I guess when they pop out of place they press on the nerves and create a big muscle spasm). Anyhoo, when I got out of bed yesterday (after not sleeping at all because every time I tried to roll over I was in excruciating pain), I called a place called Medicover (I guess like Harvard Vanguard in Boston, a few locations with doctors/specialists throughout Krakow) and tried to get in to a physical therapist. After struggling for a while speaking to the receptionist who barely spoke English, it was determined that I needed to see an orthopedist/neurosurgeon first in order to get a referral, so I made an appointment with an ortho for Thursday afternoon. I am crossing my fingers that there won't be a long wait for PT - I was spoiled in Dublin because there was a physical therapist upstairs at our gym and you could just walk in to see her, so I used to go every two weeks, or more if it got really bad. After I hung up the phone I decided to call the Sheraton to see if non-guests could use the pool. Turns out I would have to buy a monthly membership to their gym for 200 zty. Since this is barely 60 dollars (we're back to converting everything to dollars now, no more Euro for us!) I considered joining during the drive to our gym, because the kids had been begging me to take them swimming. Much to my surprise when we got to the gym pool, it had the same turbo jet!! I was so excited so again I stood in front of it most of the time I was there (the lifeguard kept giving me weird looks though). Unfortunately it didn't work as well as last time so I am not cured but at least I can stand up straight, walk, and I wasn't in so much pain last night while sleeping. 

On another note, I had to go to that Medicover clinic on Friday of last week, they did some blood work to test my thyroid for some symptoms I was having. I asked when the results would be ready and they said by Monday - wow, much quicker turnaround than Dublin. So I asked if I should call them or would they call me and I thought they had said I could call - but I am realizing that when a Polish person who sort of speaks English doesn't really understand what you are saying they just nod and say yes. So when I called Medicover yesterday I asked about getting my test results and they said I had to go back to the office to get them. Typical! The ortho is in a different location than the first one I went to but thankfully they said I would be able to get them at the front desk of the other office, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Pediatrician

The kids have been playing outside in the back yard every day because the weather has been so nice. When Mike gets home from work we usually play a little game of soccer before we take the kids up to bed. Ava got a bug bite on her elbow and one on her legs one night - I'm not sure if it was a mosquito because Mike an I usually get eaten alive but nothing touched us. The next morning I put some Benadryl spray on it and she went to camp where they took a quick trip into the forest (which is right across the road). That night she had more bites on her, but the one on her elbow really began to swell up, along with one on her ribcage. This has happened to her the past two summers that we have been back in the US, one of the doctors we brought her to thought it was a reaction to a horsefly bite. Anyway I was hoping that they would clear up on their own so I wouldn't have to find a doctor already, but unfortunately her elbow got really bad. This isn't the best photo but the red area goes up to her bicep and about 2 inches below her elbow, and it was hot (which always happens).

Bad elbow

So to be on the safe side I decided it would be best to take her to the doctor so I asked one of the few people I have met here (the wife of the GM of the Sheraton Hotel) for a pediatrician recommendation. I google mapped it on my phone and it seemed a bit far and I saw that it was in an area called Nowa Huta, which is where the power plant is that people say is polluting Krakow.

I'm assuming this is the Nowa Huta plant that I saw nearby

 I typed the address into my GPS and I don't really have my bearings yet so when it said we were arriving at destination, we were sitting outside of what appeared to be the projects so I figured I had typed the address in wrong (right street, wrong neighborhood?). Luckily I had time to spare to find my way, so I took out my phone where I had saved the location in the maps and when I searched for directions from my current location it said 20 seconds....I couldn't believe I was actually in the right place. Well, I had driven all the way there so there was no way I was turning around. The address was '41/9' so after wandering around a bit and trying to ask for directions I realized I was looking for building 9 of #41. The place seriously looked like it was going to come falling down around me - we did a circle or two around the building and then realized building 9 was numbered as 2 on the outside of the building so that's why I kept passing it. Luckily I had noticed the doctors name on a sign next to the door, but the office looked like it was closed. The door was locked and there was no bell, just a keypad so I started pressing a bunch of numbers but the door didn't open. I waited a few minutes and then called the number and the doctor finally came down to let us in. He was an old Polish man, probably in his early 70's. His English was decent, Ava seemed a little scared of him at first because she has only been to female doctors but he was really good with the kids so she relaxed a bit. After examining her he said that it was an allergic reaction caused by something in the air - I couldn't understand everything he was saying but I did hear him say how there are so many bad molecules in the air here and they cause all sorts of problems. He didn't think it was a bug bite because the two worst areas were at her joints (she had one on her knee too), so he gave me a prescription for some steroid cream and then something to take orally if it didn't get better. I really did like him a lot - it turns out he didn't even have office hours that day but when I called him and he heard that I was American he figured I must have an emergency so he made a special trip into the office. I just don't think I can go back there!! Not to mention it really was too far away- so I will just have to keep searching for another doctor...

Wandering around looking for the office - and getting kind of scared...

Playing on the slide while we were waiting - I was worried about ticks in that grass! (They do have them here -unlike Dublin- because the school sent out a notice about them)

Found it - anyone who can pronounce the doctor's last name wins a prize

side of building

walking back to the car

Plants

I was very excited to buy some herb plants to grow in my kitchen windowsill, so I would always have them around. The recipes in our program use a lot of fresh herbs so this saves me the hassle of always running to the store to buy them, and then having them go bad if I don't use them fast enough. Unfortunately I just noticed the leaves on the basil and mint plants - I am assuming an insect has been eating them?? Does this mean I have to throw the plants away, or can I still use the leaves that don't have holes all over them?? I am so annoyed!

It looks like the insects didn't like the coriander plant, but I am having trouble keeping it alive. Any tips??

Ice cream

We did  a tour through Kazimierz which is the Jewish area of Krakow - they don't have double-decker tour buses here, probably because there are too many cobblestone streets - which is a killer to walk on in heels, I did it once and I'm not sure how I got to where I was going without breaking my ankle. Instead they have golf-cart-type buses like this

During our tour we passed by a huge line on the street and our driver yelled- Ice cream! and pointed at the line. I pass by it on the way home from the gym and managed to get a picture so I asked about it at the International Women's Club coffee morning I went to and it turns out it's the best homemade ice cream in town, so I can't wait to venture out to try it!! Here's a video of the big line, I meant to take a picture but it was on video mode. The other times I passed by it the line wasn't quite so long so hopefully it won't be a big wait (the place looks like a hole in the wall though, I never would have guessed it was worthy of a special trip!)

Neighborhood

Just a quick video of a drive through our neighborhood - this is the main road that leads into city center, we were on our way home and saw some people burning who-knows-what in their backyard

I just happened to pick up our Guide To Krakow and saw this blurb in it about pollution:

The problem of pollution in Krakow was at the top of the local agenda until the late 1980's. The emissions from industrial plants constructed after WWII, of which the Sendzimir Steelworks were the largest, systemically polluted the city. Coal stoves used in heating the old tenement houses in the centre, as well as Krakow's location in a valley, added to the problem. By the 1970's pollution had damaged the gilt dome of the Zygmunt Chapel in the Cathedral. Along with the collapse of Communism, heavy industry fell into decline. New technologies, more concerned with the environment, were introduced. Industrial chimneys were equipped with filters. Thanks to the efforts of George Bush, special funds were designated by the government of the US to help reduce the low-level pollution caused by domestic stoves. Coal has been replaced by an electric heating system, Coal containing a high level of sulphur is no longer in used. The air is monitored for chemical pollution and information about its current level is displayed electronically above the entrance to 22 Market Square.

Neighbors

I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet but our landlords happen to live right next door to us. Their names are Zbigniew and Elzbieta - I am sure I will never figure out how to pronounce that! We live on a corner so really they are the only people we see on a day-to-day basis. There is a museum on the other side of our house, I have yet to figure out that kind of museum it is but every now and then people are outside having a cook-out or some kids are running around chasing a soccer ball. I kind of like that no one lives there because our backyards are only separated by an ugly green wire fence so we would have to look at them every time we were out back. I just translated the name when I uploaded the picture and it's the Estreicherow Family Museum of Culture and Recovery of Losses...?

Museum - it looks like a normal house, I took this picture so I could translate the sign

Ava and Daddy at Gospoda

Fortunately (or unfortunately), the landlords don't speak a word of English so we just wave to each other or the kids yell 'dzien dobry!'and that's about it. They have a daughter in her 30's who speaks fairly good English so she is the one I deal with mostly with house stuff, or Michal the relocation guy (but he always take a day or two to get back to me and I don't like waiting). We've had a decent amount of 'issues' since moving in so I have to say it's been handy that they live right next to us so they can be over in 5 minutes - like when the security alarm guy who barely speaks English is here and asking me a million questions about the alarm that I can't answer.  Also the other day the fuse blew the kitchen in the middle of the night, I switched it back on in the morning but it went off again in the afternoon and then again during the next night and I couldn't figure out what was causing it. Michal called the landlords and arranged to have an electrician at the house but he didn't speak English and I was out with the kids so the landlords let themselves in and dealt with it all that afternoon. Unfortunately by the time it got fixed (the dishwasher was shorting it out), it was about 6pm so I decided to toss everything inside the fridge. What a PITA, because this required an unexpected outing to the grocery store to replace everything I had just bought. Since we had no food and no electricity to cook with, we had to go out to eat that night. It was late so instead of going into city center we decided to try out the restaurant up the road that a few people have told us about - I knew they didn't really have a kids menu, but I feel like it's time to start forcing the kids to eat real food while we are out! Jack didn't eat much of his chicken but we ordered some turkey breast for Ava and she gobbled it all up. Mike and I enjoyed ours too, I have eaten their pierogies before and they were delicious but I didn't order them this time since they are not a part of our eating program : )

So back to the landlords. I have to say we have been highly entertained by the guy's outfits - he showed up to help mount our TV to the wall and he was sporting some sweet jean short shorts and a tank top - we could not stop giggling to ourselves so Ava picked up on this and grabbed my phone to take a picture. He showed up a few days later in even shorter shorts - after he left our house Ava said he took his shirt off to do some gardening but fortunately she didn't take a photo of that! She occasionally spies at him through the fence and one day she came running over to tell me she saw him wearing girl's underwear, lol!!! I think they were just even shorter shorts if that is even possible. Anyway, they are a nice couple and seem to genuinely want to make sure we enjoy our stay in the house. They brought us over a homemade rhubarb dessert the day we moved in and seem to be really friendly so hopefully it won't be too bad living next to them all the time....

Comments

Thank you to those people posting comments. If I don't see comments I just feel like I'm sitting alone at my laptop talking to myself. So please leave me more - but don't forget to use your name if you leave a note so you don't show up as an unknown user! Thanks : )

New School

We put the kids in summer camp for the week at their new school. Sunday night/Monday morning they were SO excited about it - but once we got to the school neither of them wanted to stay! I think they were just nervous after seeing all the new kids but after a few minutes I was able to escape. I really thought I would get a phone call before the end of the day which was 3pm, a little late for Jack. Especially considering they had been staying up late every night so when I ripped them out of bed at 7:15 am they were pretty exhausted already. Of course when I picked them up they had both had a great day - I could tell Jack was wiped out and the teachers told me he had stuck by their sides most of the day. The first thing he said to me was, 'I didn't talk about my bum and my peeney'!! because over the past year in Dublin I have heard (and witnessed) that Jack likes to talk a lot about his privates and he usually pulls his pants down to to show everyone. I was mortified of course, so before I dropped him off I told him he wasn't allowed to flash anyone or talk about his private things. Ava was excited because she had made two new friends - Chiara from Italy who unfortunately is moving back there so won't be at school in September - and Ana Maria, who Ava said is from Boston but I'm still not buying it - she looks and sounds Italian, I have been trying to meet her parents but it turns out she goes to the American School in Warsaw and is staying with her grandparents in Krakow for the summer so her parents must be in Warsaw. Ava is completely enamored with these two girls, who are both 8. Every day she talks about her two new best friends and what they did that day. We saw a Claire's Boutique in one of the shopping malls here and she is begging me to go back to there so we can buy some Best Friend necklaces - the ones with two pieces of a heart so each friend can wear a half. She also said how she and Ana Maria had SO much in common and that they were perfect for each other!! I'm happy she has made friends but it's really too bad that neither of them will be around in the fall. I am sure she will make new friends though come September. Here is a picture from camp, Ava's friend Maria is to her left and Chiara is above her with the hat. Jack made friends with a boy named Parker who is the blonde boy in the red shirt, he is the son of a woman Mike had put me in contact with before we moved. He's 8 but he took a liking to Jack and helped keep an eye on him for me : )

Summer Fun Camp 

I am happy enough with the school but Tuesday when I picked them up we saw Chiara walk by us with a big waffle-type cookie in her hand. Jack told me they had 'cooked' that day and he wanted to go get his. Ava went over to the teacher and asked where their creations were. The teacher responded, did you put it in the fridge? (I guess they had put chocolate inside and it was really hot (95) that day). She replied no and he said, well if it didn't go in the fridge and you left it out we threw everything out. As he was telling Ava this Jack went up to him and asked where his 'big circle cookie' was so I asked him if he had put it in the fridge and he said no. So then I said 'well your teacher said if it was left out it got thrown away'. The two of them just stood there and I honestly thought they were going to burst into tears. I mean, really, WTF??? As a teacher wouldn't you ensure that everyone's creation made it into the fridge, especially a 4 year old who probably didn't know what was going on?? I asked Ava about it on the way home and she said that she had gone to the bathroom right after making them and when she came back into the room they were cleaning everything up, and I am sure she didn't have the nerve to say anything to them. That just really annoyed me!

Pollution

Did you know that Krakow is ridiculously polluted? Well neither did I, until it was too late. After Mike accepted this position here, I was sent a link to a bunch of videos about expats living in Krakow and somehow from there I stumbled upon a site talking about the pollution. Apparently it is from diesel cars/buses in the city, lots of industrial sites nearby, and people burning their garbage or coal during the winter for heat - yikes! Krakow sits in a valley and doesn't get a lot of wind to blow all of this away. I copied the info I stumbled upon below, so this is what I now stress about at night when I can't sleep (obviously). I highlighted in red the pollution measurements. Krakow rates a 60 - NYC, 23 and LA 39. Scary! Even scarier is that I just received an air quality report from the kids school (it's about 8 miles outside of the city, so the air is supposed to be cleaner), and needless to say I wasn't really reassured.

Some parts are measuring over 120!!

We have asked a lot of people about this, and they usually tells us it's fine, safe, it's just hysteria, they've lived here for 30 years with no health problems, blah blah blah.  I'm still worried. We've noticed walking around the city that it smells 'dusty', like walking through a construction site. One of our neighbors was burning stuff in his backyard a lot last week, not sure what it was but we were out back and had to come inside and shut the windows. When I asked Mihal about this he said burning of any kind is strictly prohibited in our neighborhood - wonder if there is a way to rat him out?

I really don't want any of us developing asthma, or heaven forbid the C-word that I don't even want to say. I am just hoping that our stay will be short enough that nothing serious will happen. I bought an air purifier that is in the living room now, it's a big room so not sure how effective it is  but I'm hoping to buy some more. I also plan on buying lots of plants for the house  - although we are living in a green area with lots of trees around so not sure if that's necessary but I figure it can't hurt.   But if someone would like to send us over some face masks that we can wear whenever we go out, that would be great. I'm sure no one would stare...
for some reason I am picturing my dad running into his garage to dig out some white dust masks for us ; ) XO

Poland for many years and I would say it is the most cultural of all Polish cities. However, there is a dark side that I can not ignore. That is the pollution. I think the pollution has become so bad in Krakow, that it affects people’s health. It is a cancer hot spot.

Cracow has four times the air pollution of LA and ten times that of NYC. It is a small valley and a million cars and they have cut the trees down for new investments in blocks of flats. Krakow Poland is beautiful but the air quality is low. You can search it online yourself. The way I recommend people to get around it is buy about 30 to 50 large plants in your apartment at the flower market at the end of Krakow. The more the better. Further try to live near a green area.

I have seen many people who look ancient in Krakow because of the air. Their faces have deep lines, they have Krakow face. When they are students they do not have this, but soon they start to look old. It is like smoking a pack a day. I kid you not. In the summer it is a little better because people are not burning coal and plastic to hear their homes. But the winter the air stinks.

I moved out of Krakow because of that and for other reason. The city is beautiful to visit but there is a smog and haze that I can not ignore. If you want to move to Krakow, just be aware of this and take measure to help prevent getting toxic. Take a lot of vitamins and have lots of plants in your house and live if possible out of the valley of Krakow or near the forest.

Many people think the Pollution is from Nowa Huta after the industrialization push by the communist. This is wrong. It is from the cars that were not there ten years ago; and the fact people have machines they buy that allows them to burn trash in the winter to heat their homes. I personally love Krakow, but the pollution is something I do not like. You have to worry about your family’s health. Many children in Krakow have breathing problems and other health problems from the pollution the city ignores.

The Krakow government does not want to talk or address the issue of pollution as they are more about building football stadiums etc. However, it is not the place to live for fresh air.

I also had some trouble with the Krakow Police being horrible and had to write the President before I got any reply. So as much as I have been singing praise of Krakow, because I do love it as I love Poland also. However, the city of Krakow is polluted and not a place for a family. If you are single and want to go out dancing and study art it is the place. But only for a few years. Not to raise a family.

In the old town and Podgórze kids have learning problems maybe from the air quality being low.

If I was moving to Poland maybe I would live in a city with fresh air and cheaper housing and travel to visit Krakow from time to time.

Like everyone from abroad who has decided to live in Krakow, in the back of my mind I know that breathing the air here isn’t terribly good for my health. But how bad is it?

According to Paweł Ciećko, the director of the Malopolska Provincial Inspectorate for Environmental Protection (WIOS), it is “fatalne”, or very bad. In the cities of Europe, Krakow is 16th on the list of the cities with the most polluted air.

Why does Krakow have such bad air quality? It sits in a valley, surrounded by low hills, and is highly developed. Because of the density of development and the surrounding hills, the air gets trapped, and inversions often happen; an inversion is when a layer of warmer air caps the valley, and traps the exhaust we emit daily from our cars and heaters down at the ground level where we breathe. One chance for Krakow is for the wind to come and blow the pollution away. Unfortunately, Krakow is not well blessed with wind: 30 percent of the year no wind blows whatsoever. And when the wind blows, it’s generally on the east-west axis, which brings in the pollution from Silesia and the factories in Skawina in the west, and also some neighbourly pollution from the industrialized area of the Czech Republic around Ostrava. And to the east lies Nowa Huta, which even after the closure of many works remains the main source of industrial pollution in Krakow.

However, the situation today is much better than in the past. After WWII, the authorities decided to proletarianise Krakow, by turning it into an industrial centre. To the east, Nowa Huta was built from scratch, to the south was the pre-war Solvay soda ash factory, which mostly polluted the land and water, but also the air as well. And to the west was the aluminium works in Skawina, whose pollutants included fluoride (a by-product of producing aluminium) that forms an acid that eats glass, much to the detriment of Krakow’s churches. Skawina was closed in 1981, and the Solvay soda works were closed in 1989. Much of Nowa Huta has also closed since the changeover in 1989. The remaining industrial and power stations are much cleaner than they were: industry now produces only 30 percent of the air pollution of Krakow.

Where does the remaining 70 percent of pollution come from? From you and me, unfortunately. Paweł Ciećko from WIOS estimates that around 40 percent of Krakow’s air pollution comes from heating private homes, and 30 percent from transportation, meaning our cars and buses. And the pollution from us is getting worse, not better. More and more people have cars; every day in Krakow more than one and a half million cars move around our city. The rise in prices of electricity and natural gas have pushed more people back to coal heating, or whatever they can find to stick into their ovens.

But how bad is the air we breathe? There are three stations for measuring air quality in Krakow: one on al. Krasińskiego near Jubilat on the river, to measure pollution from traffic, one in Nowa Huta, to measure industrial pollution, and one in Krowodrza, to measure air pollution in a residential area. All the readings from these stations are published daily on the Internet at http://213.17.128.227/iseo.

The most representative measurement for general air pollution is PM10, or particulate matter of less than 10 micrometres. PM10 are airborne particles, and the smaller they are, the deeper they penetrate into our lungs and the more damage they do. The composition of PM10 depends on where you are, but in cities it results from the oxidation of the other gases associated with air pollution (sulphur dioxide [SO2], and all the nitrous oxides [Nox]), as well as all the soot that comes from what we burn. Generally, PM10 is associated with asthma, lung cancer and heart disease. The number of premature deaths in the EU25 countries attributed to human-created PM10 was estimated at 348,000 people in 2000.

What levels of PM10 are considered acceptable? The World Health Organization guidelines set the acceptable concentration of PM10 at 20 μg/m3. In the European Union, the maximum level considered healthy is 40 μg/m3. Krakow regularly averages around 60 μg/m3.

How does Krakow compare to other cities in terms of PM10? The major cities of Europe are less: in a study done in 2000, Paris was at 12 μg/m3, London 23, Berlin 25, Rome 35. In the U.S., New York was 23, while L.A., famous for its smog, was at 39, still much lower than Krakow. But on the bright side, Krakow’s 59 μg/m3 would be extremely clean for a Chinese city. And Cairo had a PM10 reading of 178!

The city has been taking steps to make things better: outer ring roads are being built, so that cars passing through Krakow don’t have to drive through the city centre. There has been a policy since the 70s to push people to convert their coal burning stoves to electricity and gas. All new buildings in Krakow are forbidden from using coal for heating. But Paweł Ciećko from WIOS says any improvement in the air depends largely on people changing their behaviour. Much of the pollution comes from burning the wrong things, in the wrong way: Cracovians often use their stoves to get rid of their garbage, even throwing plastic bottles into the toxic soup we breathe. If people learned how dangerous this is, we could be saved some of the worst pollution. Car use is also increasing yearly, along with its accompanying air pollution: a greater use of mass transit, more parking facilities at the edge of the city, and more travel by bike would also improve air quality.