Day 15 - July 19th - By Ania

After another late night of partying and packing, the Lowiczanie crew had an early morning. We were on the bus by 8am and started our adventurous drive from Krynica-Zdroj to Krakow. Three and a half hours of travel later, we arrived at Hostel Renesans, our sleeping quarters for the next two nights. We lived it up dorm-style, sharing two big rooms with bunk beds and a public bathroom-great for some real bonding! After dropping off our very large pile of luggage at the Hostel, we enjoyed a delicious obiad and afternoon tea at Dom Poloni, a quaint restaurant off of Krakow's Rynek. Following obiad, the group ventured out on a four hour tour of the city's greatest sites hosted by the very kind and knowledgeable people involved in the San Fransisco-Krakow Sister City agreement. About half of our group attended the tour while others visited family living near by. I hopped on the tram and spent the afternoon catching up with my grandparents over bowls of tiramisu ice cream. After the group reunited in the evening, we ate kolacje at a cafe that offered a bountiful salad bar. 

As is typical for Lowiczanie, our day did not end there! We were troopers and prepared ourselves for a group rehearsal for our next day's concert in Nowa Huta. We split up into two groups; one group headed to City Hall to practice, while the other took a short walk from the Hostel to the rehearsal hall of the local Polish Dance Ensemble, Krakowiacy. The Krakowiacy director and choreographer were sweet enough to offer us their time, energy, and dance space for proba and assisted us in preparing for our Nowa Huta performance. We later joined up for a large group proba, ending around 11:30pm, exhausted by the day's travels and activities. We returned to our Hostel and spent some leisurely time together in the common room, chatting and enjoying each other's company while making use of the common room computer and TV. The day officially tired us out and this was one night that Lowiczanie did not have the energy to go out for official on-the-town partying. The majority snuggled up into their cozy bunk beds by 1am.

-Ania