Brian in Krakow to Work

March 2, 2008

It’s always such a long trip to Krakow. From the time one leaves the house for the airport to the time one arrives at the hotel in Krakow it is 22 hours of forward motion and an advancement of 7 time zones. And most of us do not get any or enough sleep on the plane. Maybe I had 3 hours over the Atlantic. But when we arrived we were greeted by the fields covered in a light dusting of snow which made us want to get out and about. So we freshened up, took power naps and headed off.

Two of my colleagues had never been to Krakow so I took them on a brief tour of the major points. That included a stop at an Irish pub located in a cellar. Then it eventually became 7 p.m. when we met for dinner at a Polish folk restaurant that had delicious food. By 9 p.m. I was dozing off at the table which was my sign to head home. So off we went to our hotel for a good rest.

On Sunday three of us went to Mass and met for an afternoon of sight-seeing. I took them from the Barbican to Wawel castle. We then had a nice dinner and called it a day.

I am in Krakow to help with the implementation of my company’s new SAP operating system and the process changes that go along with it. This new “operating model” will manage the orders, paper machines, transportation and a host of other processes at International Paper. Since we are supporting customer service we are working their hours which are 2 to 11 p.m. Because of the late start we try to hit a nice restaurant before work as we have food delivered for our dinner. Our first two weeks of work has been easier than we had imagined.

On Saturday the 24th I was on my own as the others took a tour to Auschwitz. I walked 6 miles taking photos of the insides of many of the churches I had visited before. Here are a few of them:

(Above: St. Adalbert's: oldest church in Krakow 11th C.. Left: Holy Trinity Church b. 1872. Original foundation from 1250 A.D.)

On Sunday I met up with my friend Mike and led him on my version of the “Schindler’s List” tour. I had taken this tour in 2005 so tried to hit the high points of it. Along the way we looked inside some more churches including the Church of Corpus Christie. On display there are photos of many of the important documents including the royal wax stamp approving of the building of this church around 1400 A.D. Since we were in Kazimierz we would made our way over to the Remuh Synagogue & Cemetery on ul. Szeroka. This active synagogue dates back to 1553 and the oldest tombs date from the 16th century.

(Above: The wall around the Remuh Cemetery that is made of broken headstones. Below: the cemetery.)

(The bridge in Schindler's List that led the Jews to the Jewish Ghetto.)

After Kazimierz we walked along the Vistula River and towards Wawel Castle. You should have seen all of the people. It was like being at (insert any name here) Stadium right after the game is over.

By the time we made it back to the hotel we had walked almost 10 miles.

During the past week we ate and worked each day leading up to the this weekend which finds me working from my hotel room. Just as well as it's been cold, wet and windy. The windiest I have ever seen it over here.

I apologize if this is more mundane than normal but this is a working trip. Please stay tuned for more to come….