I never finished blogging the rest of the trip in Europe (left off in an internet cafe in Ukraine!) but we made it to Poland the next day, and found more family in a remote Southern part of the country where we had ancestors from the villages of Losie, Pielgrzymka and Klopotnica (more on this at www.avillagecluster.com)
Sadly Klopotnica is only a field now and Pielgrzymka had no remaining Teleps (our relatives) only a couple in the graveyard, but in Losie, we hit a homerun finding living Hubiaks (I have about 12 great-great-uncles and aunts in the Hubiak family all from the same family that came to Mayfield, Pennsylvania, so there are hundreds of Hubiaks throughout the U.S.) and we will definitely stay in touch with these guys! They were so wonderful and showed us the church and the local history museum all about villagers.
My mom developed kidney stones at the end of the trip, so she had to skip the trip to the Polish little villages, and we were all really bummed about the timing (and she had a pretty lousy experience in Krakow's university hospital) but we carried on and she made it back to the U.S. last week safely.
Krakow was especially beautiful and fantastical, with romantic castles and spikey spires on many buildings. I would love to go back there again.
this is a mosaic wall of the remains of Jewish gravestones that were destroyed by the Nazis in WWII
horses on Rynek Glowny
yours truly at Poland's most touristed site, the Wawel Castle (notice strings of children on field trips behind me)
Rynek Glowny (main market square) glowing at night
funky ceiling in our hotel
a heartbreaking memorial to a loyal puppy in Kazimierz, the Jewish Quarter
Lion in the market square
I love that this airport bathroom mom is carrying Eva from WALL-E (the future of babies?)
Dad and I at the front of the town Losie (pronounced Washie) - impressed that this one has a sign marker!!
typical view of the countryside out the window of our train
the Hubiaks we met in Losie!
my dad's great-grandfather's brother's (or father's) grave in Losie... I enhanced this photo on my computer to try and make out the letters and shapes better - the word they are pointing to says HUBIAK.
the deserted Klopotnica
cemetery in Pielgrzymka
