Our whirlwind trip to Poland

Last Friday, February 16th was Lithuania's Independence Day which meant a day off work for us! Last Tuesday we made a very last-minute decision to join a group of friends & drive down to Krakow, Poland. We've been to Poland's capital, Warsaw, a number of times, but haven't yet been to Krakow, which UNICEF has ranked 1 of the 12 greatest historic cities in the world. So, 6 of us & Ieva loaded into a rental van on Thursday afternoon & started the 14-hour drive south. By way of easy reading, I'll list our trip highlights in bullet form:

• Getting stuck in a row of semi trucks who were stopped dead on the highway for 20 miles before the Lithuanian/Polish border, and playing the Lithuanian version of highway chicken as Andrew (and other cars) wove & dodged in & out of the lane of oncoming traffic to pass them all. (apparently, the border stop for semis that day was quite the ordeal, thankfully, it wasn't a problem for us once we got there!)
• While calling our hostel owner from Warsaw, she told us that it would only be a 2-hour drive from there to Krakow...when it reality it took over 4 hours to get there!
  
• Arriving at our hostel at 5am, thankful to FINALLY be there, only to smash one of the van windows on the gate of the extraordinarily narrow driveway as we pulled in
• Taping a bag over the broken window so we could drive the van to the salt mines on Saturday
• Walking down 400 feet of stairs (with Ieva on our backs in the backpack) into the historic salt mines & going on the 3-hour tour throughout them to see floors, walls, chandeliers & statues all carved of salt - amazing!
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• Finding a place that would replace our broken van window in one day
• Taking the city bus on the 2 hour drive to & from Auschwitz, and standing half of the way there & the entire way back (thankfully, one of us was able to sit with Ieva both ways)
• Touring through the work camp at Auschwitz and the death camp at Birkenau to witness the heart-wrenching reality of what is left from that tragic piece of history
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• Staring at this photo of a baby with its mother on their way to Auschwitz and holding the hand of my precious baby girl while thanking God for our safety and for the gift of being together
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• Walking around Krakow's gorgeous old town on Saturday evening

• Having fantastic Indian cuisine in old town
  
• As well as getting a taste of America at Pizza Hut & KFC and then going to IKEA & our favorite European clothing store H&M (which isn't in Lithuania)!
• Smooth sailing (no more bad traffic or accidents) the entire drive home - hallelujah!
  
• Our collective thematic songs (with each person making up a line) to the tune of 'Blessed Assurance' for part of the drive home
• Arriving home at 1:00am on Sunday night & sleeping in our own beds!

Andrew, Kim & Ieva in Krakow's old town