A Park in Krakow in Autumn

So, let me first make a note about this blog title. Yes, I am aware that I just wrote "Autumn," implying that it is now Autumn. However, the Autumn season seemed to come and go within a week, and I just didn't have the time during the season to blog about it. We were wearing jeans and light sweaters about a week ago, the weather was sunny and in the mid 70's, and summer was just waning. One morning last weekend I looked out of our kitchen window and noticed that a tree in the courtyard out back had turned brilliantly yellow! The leaves were solid, sparklingly mustard (Heines, not German). As we left for teaching that day, we noticed that the whole city had been transformed into all shades of Autumn. Beautiful! Two days later, leaves started to fall. Yesterday we had our first snow, and it's been snowing ever since. It's a nice, constant flurry; big, fat flakes for a while, then tiny ones for a while, then back to the big ones. This is definitely Winter, so Autumn was here for a week.
Because of the chilly temps, we might not make it to this park for some time. But at least we know about it now. We found a park. And a beautiful park at that. Some special features: a paddle boat pond (complete with ducks!) that we're guessing could double as an ice rink in Winter, winding lanes, old statues of poets and saints, an open air photo installation on Pope John Paul II (who was from Krakow and is uber-famous here), fountains, a cafe at the entrance serving coffee and beer, a pretzel/bagel cart just outside the entrance selling the tasties for 1 zloty ($0.30!), a bike/skate ramp (totally x-game style) that all the 8 year old boys had gravitated to, and hippies! Right outside of this park is another park. This might sound odd, but it works. The park outside the beautiful park is more like Zilker in Austin (see pic of Bhads and Boos)--a big expanse of grass for the doggies to stretch their paws...and do their business. A side note: people in Poland tend to not put too much emphasis on cleaning up after their pets in public. It's not unusual to find doggie presents in the middle of the sidewalk in the city center, and no one frowns on dog walkers without pooper scoopers. Like many things, at first we were shocked and now it's just normal.

We're slowly, but surely, starting to discover more local Krakowian nuances. It was a grand day out, and we'll make our way over there again.