What a week! The 18th Jewish Culture Festival, the largest Jewish festival in the world, began the day we arrived in Krakow. Centered in Kazimierz, the ancient Jewish district on UNESCO's World Heritage List, this lively festival is attended by people from all over the world, and features theatre performaces, lectures, films, tours, concerts, classes, workshops, art installations, museum exhibits, and much much more. The music is extraordinary. We heard music spilling from synagogues, much as Dora must have done when she lived here in 1918. We heard many different styles of Klezmer music, as well as Hasidic, classical, and Jewish folk music. The culminating concert, Shalom on Szeroka Street, attended by thousands, started with rain showers in the evening and didn't end until two a.m. 

Byron and I took a week-long free, but intensive Yiddish class this week taught by wonderful Anna Gulinska at the Galicia Jewish Museum, and participated in a Yiddish singing workshops taught by Jeff Warschauer in the afternoons. We attended free Klezmer concerts held on tiny cobbled squares, surrounded by people from all over the world. 

One of our favorite groups we heard perform at the daily evening free "Concert between Two Synagogues." Konsonans Retro is a group of family members from the Ukraine.

When Byron and I were here in 2001, Kazimierz was a bit depressing, with little life left in the narrow lanes. Only old photographs, like this one below, showed the Jewish life on the ancient streets.

I'm learning a thing or two about blogs. After getting advice from the best and brightest at KPBS, the fact is I can't keep up. Life happens faster than I can write about it. Especially when you are living it in Krakow. The Old Town Market Square is about 10 minutes from our adorable studio flat, which is at the end of a quiet residental street, facing a garden. Lovely. The center itself is lively, but not too full. Last night for the finals of the Euro 2008 soccer games, there were people on the squares, filling the pubs, restaurants and cafes all tuned to the match, until past midnight, when Byron and I walked home on ancient cobblestone streets.

Home. Well, it is, until the end of July. The Kafka Project proceeds apace, which is slow right now. Have a meeting set for Wednesday with a couple of students who want to be involved. In the meanwhile, we sightsee and participate in the 18th Jewish Culture Festival in Kazimierz.  We have begun a week-long free class in Yiddish. Today we learned to write our names. 

I leave you now with a slice of life Byron snapped at Wawel Castle. Stay tuned: Coming up soon, more perpectives and thoughts from Magical Mystery Tour travelers, including my sister Trudi's report on her last night in Berlin. 

A nun checks her PDA during a tour of Wawel Castle in Krakow.