Seawitch and the castle dragon!

I know I am flooding the internets with travel stuff. Sorry if it bugs. It's mainly for my parents
(hi mom and dad!)

Also, on a totally different note, I just read an article about GOT and Maisie Williams had some things to say about book readers versus show watchers and blah, blah, blah.... the best part is that the fifth comment down someone said "Hodor?" and then a bunch of people responded with "Hodor! Hodor, Hodor, Hodor, etc." It was awesome and made me laugh out loud.

Sorry Mom. That is a reference you won't know.

Shall I write about real things?

And so the next journey begins...

Today is our last day in Krakow. We've had a few days of site-seeing and relaxing. We leave for Lanckorona to start work on the the next show. It is the last leg of the trip. Here we go!

The show in Krakow was awesome. We had a brief moment before the show where we thought we were going to have to add a show after the show for all the people!!! But we squeezed everyone in.
We saw old friends, made new friends, and hung out at THE coolest little theatre pub ever. It had a hamster theme. Really.

                                                 Here is a hamster painting!

Tour portion of the trip, complete!!
Success!
All of my thanks to Hubert for his fabulous tour management. Hurrah!

A break in Krakow is the best break ever.
Here are a few random, go-nowhere thoughts:

Smart phones make international travel much easier. You're trying to explain in sign language to the cab driver that you need to go to the theatre and then realize you can just pull up Poltran and bam-
there you go guy.
I am glad that I traveled before smart phones. This is actually a group that gravitates towards the old fashioned anyway. Hannah and her maps (crumple map!!!!) Alex and his "this one guy told me this one thing while he was drunk about a cool place and so I'll just get half the directions and follow my instincts"
side note-this is really how Alex functions. Yesterday we ventured out with Alex as our guide to find a swimming lake we had "heard about" in a town outside of Krakow. Two blind faith bus rides, one wrong turn, a whole lotta walking later and we spent the day swimming in an amazing lake. And chasing weird fish that swim super close to the surface so you can just swim with them. It has been super hot and tour is hard work. A day at the lake was much appreciated.

Anyway, we use the phones of course but not as much as most people probably do. I am glad that I did a lot travel before phones. Forced to figure it out with the giant Lonely Planet book was a good way to spend my twenties and I can only assume made me who I am today.
An anxiety filled, bossy socks woman. Haha. Just kidding.
Kind of.
Here we are at the lake:

  We did do a lot of swimming. We started with standing around drinking beers though. 

Other adventures include walking around the square, sitting in parks, and visiting Wawel Castle. Wawel  is one of my favorite places. I can't imagine living in this city (well... I totally can and wish I did at times) and you're like, "I think I'll go for a walk by the FREAKING CASTLE!!!" Castles are awesome. They just are. Here is the sign for the Dragon's Den.

                                                     Oh man, I love the Dragon's Den.

We also do a lot of home cooking and game playing. Dixit is my new favorite game. Here is one of my favorite Dixit cards.

                                           I think this looks like Aaron's dreams.

We also do a lot of morning working from the flat. I love European windows. They open like doors. When I win the lottery, I will put them in my home. Here I am in one of them.

                                                         Bloggity blog.

I will end on a serious note.
Yesterday we went to Auschwitz and Birkenau. I have been to Auschwitz before. It was heartbreaking and stomach achingly powerful. The second time is probably more intense simply because you know a little about what to expect. Instead of being so overwhelmed, you can really focus on details. Also, we went right at opening, two hours before the tours start. Being in there alone allows for a different experience. In one block, I made an effort to look in the eyes of every prisoner photo that lined the wall.
See them. See them. See them.
I had never been to Birkenau and I am very grateful that I went. It is so, so, so enormous. It does a different thing to your perspective. Also, the barracks or "blocks" (basically long buildings) where people lived ("lived") have not been touched. Whereas at Auschwitz, the blocks have been turned into museum exhibits, in Birkenau they are just as they were. Also, at the end of the train track, there is a memorial which is quite moving. I am having a hard time finding the right words to describe it all. I'm probably making someone mad right now by my choice of words or by even writing about it in a blog where I also wrote about hamsters. Sorry if you are mad. I can't be anyone but who I am.
At two moments when I was alone I took a photo. It felt weird but I did it. Here they are.

                                                                     Birkenau

                                                              Memorial 

All I can say is that it is a place everyone should visit. It does something to your soul.
There is a lot of hate in the world right now.
Stop the hate people.
Please, please, please stop the hate.

The 505 Polish connection

Seriously. If we didn’t love New Mexico so much we might not come back. 

Send for our loved ones, our critters, our things and just make a cozy home here in Poland. 

You are being so good to us, Poland. We love you.

Opened in Warsaw last night. Again, assumed a very small house. Again, a very good house. We had a fantastic show. I think we have found the balance of articulation and gesture in a foreign country with our style that works. We have started playing more. Throwing in Polish words as they fit. Finding moments in the show that are new. It was so much fun. Also, this is the first theatre we have performed in that had pure, total darkness. Everywhere else has had some sort of light bleed. This place was pitch dark. It took some time to get used to but once I did it was rad. 

                                       Alex and Aaron ready for the show

The audience really seemed to like the show. They laughed a lot  and their energy was amazing. After the show, as so happens in Poland I find, people stuck around and we all talked and drank and laughed and connected. People had lovely things to say to us about the show. I met some awesome people and we had a fantastic night.

                                                          Hi Poland.

A few other things along the way…

The train ride to Warsaw wasn’t as awful as I thought it was going to be. 

OF COURSE someone had the one lone seat in our compartment of eight seats. An older man maneuvered his way around all of our luggage to sit by the window and read his paper and eat his sandwich. He was a good sport. Aaron and I spent most of the ride standing in the hall sticking our faces out the window.

There are way more espresso machines in Poland than I remember. This is very good for me as the Nescafe that is usually served is just not my favorite. I always miss a few things when I am abroad. I miss cold water (really cold drinks in general are not that common.) I miss good ol’ US of A breakfast. Yesterday for breakfast I had soup. It was a sort of mushroom soup with pieces of sausage and a hard boiled egg sliced into 4 pieces. It was totally delicious. I also often miss coffee. Nescafe is common around the world. Drip coffee not as much. The coffee here seems better than some of my past experiences. It’s pretty yummy.

Let's see... what else? Oh! We went to a show called Persona Marilyn. It was awesome and weird and cool and fun. Polish theatre fun times. 

                                               Theatre in Warsaw

My Polish vocabulary is better than it has ever been. I hope to be at 100 words when we leave. I am at about 35. I am learning my numbers right now. Hubert is a great teacher. And he laughs a lot at my pronunciation.

Oh. Did I tell you that there were some Albuquerque folks in the audience last night? That is crazy true. We’re walking out and these dudes were like, 

Hi. We live in Albuquerque.

It was bananas.

Today is a day off. We have to strike and pack and then we are going to the Uprising Museum. Tomorrow is an early train to Krakow. KRAKOW!!! I can’t wait. 

                       Szczecin. Alex is returning a chair we borrowed for the show. 

Dziękuję

Wow. What an amazing start to our Polish tour.

We are in Szczecin, a beautiful Polish town. It’s not hard to be beautiful in Poland. It’s simply a lovely country. I highly recommend a visit.

We performed in an art gallery. A huge room with metal and glass everywhere. A wonderful photo installation on the walls. It gave an incredible feeling to our mental hospital. Our set looked amazing in there. 

 Happily putting together the table.

We really did not expect a big crowd. We have a few friends in Szczecin. Hubert (our Polish tour manager) has some friends. The gallery told a few folks, but our PR in Szczecin was light. And really, it is July. That means holiday. People are out of town or at least have gone away for their Sunday fun. Since the space wasn’t a proper theatre, we could set it up as we wanted. We put out a small amount of cushions and chairs. Perfect, we thought.

                                                       Polish translation.

Nando, Hannah, Drew, and I are all standing in a back room waiting for our places call. We just keep seeing Alex and other gallery people coming back and getting chairs. And more chairs. And more chairs. And more chairs. I'm not kidding. Alex comes back and warns that there is a big group on the side and they’ll be able to see backstage so we need to keep it hidden as best we can. Okay Alex.

Our tiny and weird show played to maybe its biggest house yet. Thanks Poland. You are awesome. Today is a day off and tomorrow we head to Warsaw. Not a bad start.

                                                      Day off. I slept in a bit. 

I guess our official start was last week. New York was great. I am so thankful and humbled by the enormous New Mexico showing. New Mexico rocks you guys. What a bunch of fabulous people. I made up a song about the awesomeness of New York/Mexico. Neither of which are very new, but they are both pretty cool. 

The people at Standard Toykraft where we performed were also rad. I could have spent all day in their puppet workshop staring at their amazing creations. 

Thanks New York. You were super swell. 

Some other things along the way...

We managed all of our set bags on a very packed train, so I am optimistic for the rest of the train travel. 

                                               Oh my.  That is a lot of bags. 

Aaron, Drew, and Nando got monkey dogs (long hot dogs stuffed in a bread tube) and went to a movie.

I have climbed a lot of stairs. 

Pierogi is delicious (so it is good there are stairs everywhere.)

We had a rooftop party.

                                                               Rooftop party.

                                                               Polish hospitality.

It turned into an impromptu dance party.

Nando is probably the best dancer in the whole world.

There is a little wiener dog who lives close by and his owner walks him to the park often. It makes me miss my little Shudek dog. 

Aaron makes the Polish girls giggle. He goes up to the clerk or the server or whatever and he says, "Dzien Dobry!" and then he says other things and then I hear "hee-hee-hee-hee." He's quite the charmer that one. 

                                                                    Charming.

I have to walk some chairs we borrowed for the show back over to another theatre and then go have dinner on the river. More soon. 

Peace.