I heart Krakow

I like Krakow a lot - I am sad to think of leaving here tomorrow and I already starting to plot my return. . .

I've been trying to figure out why I like it so much. My conconclusion is that it has nearly everything I like about Belgrade :
cafe culture
a slower pace of life than the States
a river
parks
people in public places
interesting history
crazy politics [the current president and prime minister are identical twins who were movie stars as children]

and some things that Belgrade doesn't have:
lots of ethnic restaurants
an amazingly well-stocked, even by American standards supermarket (think Larry's Market) [in which I picked up mango chutney & wasabi and replenished my Lesbian Tea Collection
an English language used bookstore with a cafe in which I can sit and read magazines
a nearby saltmine full of carvings of saints, and JP2 and an entire church carved into salt

Also, it's somewhat comforting to be back somewhere where a Slavic language is spoken after my time in Germany. My sources tell me that Serbian and Polish are only 30% the same, but that is still something. I can read some signs and the numbers are similar. It's satisfying to realize that my recently acquired language skills are a bit transferrable.