Our two day mini-staycay for our fifth anniversary continued on Friday, following up on the museum visit the day earlier. We decided to dive right into a typical tourist afternoon in Rome and take a group cooking class.
We took our time getting going, dropped Aleksander off at daycare and stopped in for coffees at the one cafe in our area that’s more similar to what you’d find in North America than in Italy i.e you sit around sipping coffee, chatting unhurriedly and even pull out your laptop if you’re so inclined.
A cooking class had been on both of our Roman bucket lists and our anniversary felt as good a time as any to take the leap. Dalia found one near Piazza Navona that had good reviews and we signed up, like regular old fake tourists.
We started by making a double-time tiramisu (Dalia’s dream dessert) and then moved on to kneading and rolling out dough for homemade pasta. The instructors were patient with a ragtag of travellers, young and old.
We ended up with a tidy bird’s nest of fettuccine and a half dozen cute stuffed raviolis and all felt pretty proud. It wasn’t easy exactly but also not hard or long enough that one would be dissuaded from giving it a go at home.
The restaurant cooked the pasta in the students’ sauce of choice and provided a glass of wine for an awkward but ultimately harmless meal with a bunch of strangers. We played along, feeling somehow coy about the fact that we lived 20 minutes away and had to leave soon to pick up our child from daycare. Then the completely forgotten about tiramisu arrived and rounded out the few hours of wholesome fun.
We hustled back to pick up Aleksander, glad that we did another thing that we’ve been meaning to do here before it’s time to go. Happy to have enjoyed a rather lowkey day on our fifth wedding anniversary and talked about more upcoming plans to come.
So as our fifth wedding anniversary approached, we considered almost every idea under the sun for how to celebrate: Puglia, Tuscany, the Amalfi; but eventually we decided to take it easy, stay in town, take a couple days off work and do the kinds of things that we never seem to be able to squeeze in, like visiting museums.
So we dropped Aleksander at daycare, played hooky for the day and headed towards the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderne
The museum was a welcome reprieve from the ongoing summer heatwave and provided much food for thought, with exhibits ranging from the inspiring to truly bizarre.
We walked, observed, chatted, laughed and reflected. Five action packed years of marriage had passed by quickly, and especially after Aleksander’s birth, taking stock of the days, months and years has become a luxury of time that we’re just not afforded anymore.
We meandered as though we were simply back to being a couple in love, masters of their own schedules! We fought back some parental guilt for being without our little one but washed that away with a glass of wine before lunch and another one with it.
The date was exactly what this couple needed and proved to be a great way to begin our weekend of celebration.
Although I was born in Poland, 40 years after my family emigrated, close relatives still there are becoming more and more rare. My mom has a branch of the family, from her stepsisters, who are the main remaining contacts. And it’s exactly one of my cousins on that side who invited us for a Polish wedding on a Thursday in late June. How could you say no?!
Even by our hectic travel standards, this was a quick turnaround, not quite two weeks after we returned from the South of France. Unfortunately, it was also our first ever two leg flight with Aleksander and the stopover in the otherwise lovely Munich airport, did really add quite a bit of pressure to our day’s travels.
We arrived in Krakow in the evening, renegotiated a car rental as the agency had cancelled our reservation and headed into the worst hail storm of our lives. Aleksander wailed as the hail hit our car roof and windshield as though weather grenades were being launched. Fortunately, it didn’t last forever and we eventually made it to our hotel in Rybnik under warm clear skies. (The worst part of the trip was out of the way).
I’ve written this elsewhere and my wife always laughs, but some kind of ethereal strange calm comes over me whenever I cross the border into Poland, a country I’ve lived in only for the first two years of my life. Suddenly I’m unhurried, largely unstressed and feel like life is simpler than it otherwise feels. I felt like this strolling around this small city in the morning, looking into bakeries and periogi making shops as we prepared to leave for the wedding.
Even though we were in a somewhat rural environment, our Thursday wedding still required some driving, to the bride’s home town. Somehow or other, I’ve never actually been to a Polish wedding and despite the excessive Rome-like heat, the ceremony was elegant and wondrous, as most weddings are.
Next stop was the reception hall some 30 minutes away. After the previous day’s extended travel, our appetites were primed for whatever non-pizza or pasta dishes were on offer. We were seated by shortly after 3pm and the rounds of food, drink and dancing (apparently) did not stop for the next 12 hours.
The next morning was similar to most post-wedding mornings in foreign countries, starting too early and with the need for excess coffee. We briefly met the wedding party again for a brief lunch (because Polish weddings are a standard of two days!) and then turned the GPS in the direction of Krakow. Daddy getting driving duty while the back seat passengers recharged.
Dalia and I had been to Krakow together in late 2019 from Vienna but this was our first visit in the summer and might I add, post-covid summer. The city was an absolute revelation.
The summertime vibes were just electric. People happy to outside in the main square, happy to be travelling, eating, drinking, meeting strangers, all without masks. Aleksander chased birds and horses, we ate more and more, and just took in the lively evening atmosphere.
The next day, more or less recovered from the wedding exhaustion, we visited the Wawel Castle, maybe Kraków’s most notable tourist site. Its location allowed for wonderful views and an opportunity for Aleksander to run around to his heart’s content.
We finished our visit by meandering around the Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, with its variety of bars, restaurants, markets, shops and history. Again, we reflected, planned, reminisced and did all those wonderful things that travel allows, with a little shift in perspective from normal life.
Our quick trip had a great balance of family time, touristy exploration, remembering old memories and making some new. We fell in love with Krakow in summer in a way we never quite did in the fall or winter and hope to find another excuse to get there before too long. Perhaps another Thursday wedding, who knows!
Dad In The World 