What a character!

(sorry family, this is a repeat for you, I just had to share with my friends!)

This is my cute niece. (So VERY cute)

If you look closely. She has nice little accessory on the back of her hair.

Yup. It's a Dum-Dum!

Kids are the greatest!

Me. In an Opera House. Sa-weet!!

This is a picture of me dancing on the stage of the Wroclaw Opera House.

Yup. I pretty much love this picture.

Not sure how to edit this one.  Let me know if you know how...

But this is a picture of me and the ceiling of the Opera House.

And this, of course a pic of my dirty foot.  An opera house isn't used to barefooted dancers and therefore, had hard time keeping the floor clean.   Eww.

After the show, the company took the dancers out to eat at this restaurant, where we had our own room with plush chairs. 

Needless to say, I felt like royalty....

(yes that is wine in my hand, but it was borrowed for the pic for effect)

Poland Continued

This is a picture of hotel they are renovating, across the street from the Opera House.  If you look closely at the picture, the balcony that you see there (slightly masked by a drop cloth) was not part of the original design. No.  This balcony was constructed specifically for Hitler when he came to make a speech in Poland.  eerie.

Below are some cool buildings of Wroclaw's city square.  The photos were taken on two different days.  We had 2 half days to go explore, the rest of our time was rehearsing.  

There were also several little gnomes around the city, just hanging out here and there.  Some where on window ledges, some hanging off lamp posts.  Not sure why.

And of course, I got a picture with Papa Elf.  For whatever reason, posing with this character wasn't as nearly as creepy as is it with some "street performers"

This a picture of the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company in downtown Wroclaw.  Cool!

Below is a picture of a the University and one of it's lecture halls.  Pretty cool.

 A picture of the company rehearsing in the Opera House rehearsal hall.

Hey family...remember when I brought back those random kids books from Montreal? 

Look! It's Gofrette the Cat! On TV!  

Apparently he has a TV show and there are plans to bring him to the states!

Trip to Poland

 

We arrived in the city of Wroclaw (Vrot-Swav) at 10:30am,  after a somewhat long, yet fairly comfortable flight.  A taxi drove us to our hotel, just outside, but within walking distance, of the city-square and the Opera House.  After checking in, I sleepily made my way up to our hotel room and found this on our TV screen...

Yes.  It was a screen of champagne glasses and roses, with a note from the concierge, welcoming us to Hotel Orbis, specifically "Pani Woolf".  Which means "Miss Woolf"...ooh...personalized!

The Hotel was mostly there for sleeping in, that's it.  In Poland you are allowed to smoke in restaurants, lobbies, bars, and hotels.  Our room wasn't too bad, as it was a Non-smoking room, but several of the rooms on our floor were definitely smoking.

Then, in order to fight off any jet lag, we went walking around the city (for 6 hours...whew, I was exhausted.  Mind you, I had already been up for a good 20 hours. So by the time I got to bed, it was about 36 hours without sleep.  But, it was worth it!)

So the next couple of photos is of the more historic part of Wroclaw.

Above Left, are statues that gradually make their way down below the

street level, which represented those who "disappeared" or were forced to go 

underground during Soviet rule (let me know if that is not totally accurate).

Above Right is a picture of me in front of Town Hall.  I'll say once and I'll say it again...such great architecture!

Above is a picture of me jumping for joy in the city square.

The buildings in downtown Wroclaw are so colorful!

Top is a picture of the Opera House where we, rehearsed and performed.

Below is the logo for the festival.  I thought it was pretty cool.

I have to go now but there is more to come, so stay tuned...

Oh. About Pollack jokes...I don't know if they can ever be told in good humor. I say this because of the origin of Polish jokes.  After WWII, word was spread as to how quickly Poland was defeated by German and Russian forces (just over a month).  And shortly thereafter, Pollack jokes  appeared, making fun of Poland and how quickly they became occupied. 

And after reading about Poland history, AFTER WWII, I have great admiration for Poles. Despite their historic struggles, Poland is quite resilient and tenacious.  

So no jokes from me sorry.