Another long day in the bus today, but punctuated with lots of stops along the way – including the Black Madonna and Auschwitz/Birkenau. Half uplifting, half not. Let the bus ride begin.

We’re up and out early this morning, before 8am, passing the Palace of Culture for the last time, then south out of the city and into suburbia and then farmland before stopping for a quick bathroom break about an hour and a half in. Just a huge gas station, but next to it is this resort hotel that has just recently reopened – but that’s not the attraction. The entire complex has a thatched roof. It is enormous and wild and original construction, just like centuries before when thatched roofs were the norm. Wild.

Oh, and have I mentioned that this is the candy tour? I don’t think I have! Ieva is a great guide and teacher, and she quizzes us on all sorts of information she has passed on. The correct answer scores a local candy bar! It’s fabulous. And she augments those quiz winnings with candy from each city we visit. She arrives on the bus with bags of candy from which we get to grab a candy bar – typically one for each hand! Treats! Keeps us happy and sugar rushed the whole trip.

An hour and a half after our rest stop (and candy treats, FYI), we arrive at Jasna Gora, the Icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa. If you haven’t tracked the dates of the blog, I’ll remind you that today is, of all days, Sunday. Horrors. And we are here at the Orthodox Catholic Church with the holiest of holy icons at approximately 11:15am. Yep. Mass. Sigh.

Regardless, we all press on with strict instructions of where to meet the bus and what time to be back once we’ve finished our touring. Ieva leads us in through the strangely empty courtyard, and leaves us to find our guide. We have obviously hit a courtyard sweet spot, because it is great to be able to take pictures of the wonderful buildings – the Chapel entrance, the Monster walls, the Arsenal building and the Museum facade.

Our guide, a nun, appears and ushers us into the interior courtyard which is quickly filling up with people. She gives us a basic overview of the icon and different precious religious relics that can be found at the altar by showing us a really great mural representation of everything.

I’m really happy she did because, oh, heavens to Murgatroyd, when we get inside the chapel? It is just people upon people upon maskless people. ACK! We have a special lane in which we can circle the altar up against the walls of the cathedral – and we are just all up against each other in single file, all trying to take pictures, trying to listen to our guide, who, oh btw, is walking on her knees around the altar because that’s a sign of penance and devotion. Uh huh. There is no way to see everything – or virtually anything really – or comprehend what we are seeing. The pictures tell the story – some good ones of the icon, but lots of the literal masses (yes, the pun is intended), and excuse the blurry ones, just trying to provide an idea of the crowd.

Needless to say, we are uncomfortable to the nth degree. There is nothing we can do but shuffle along. And it gets worse when we have to stop and kneel or at least look down when the Priest begins the Holy Communion. Can we please just get out of here. Because, honestly, on top of the peopley issue, it is just really really uncomfortable to be the photo snapping tourist during Mass. You all know we aren’t religious, but that just seemed like a horribly rude intrusion. Double ugh. When we finally get out of the chapel to go upstairs to the little museum display, it is with a big huge sigh of relief. And while there isn’t much up here, at least there is a representation of the Black Madonna so we can see what it looks like up close.

We’re done with the tour now, thank heavens, and can wander around until our 1pm bus boarding. There is a museum here that has all the different “clothes” that the Madonna wears – they change out the framing around the Madonna’s face and hands to protect the icon from the elements – but we’re not going inside another building here. We’re not that into it. Instead we wander back out the main gate and take a look at the 2 restaurant options, settling on the “tearoom” which is a cafeteria line where we order an excellent Bigos (yay! finally!) and grilled Kielbasa that we happily eat sitting outside on the side of Monastery walls.

Taking our final photos of the Monastery, we head back to the bus, buying a couple Obwarzanki, the Polish “bagels” that we have come to adore, from a vendor strategically located right at the parking lot.

Tearing into the Obwarzanki, we try to munch happily (they are really, really hard – I’m thinking maybe stale – but what can you expect from a vendor in a location such as that?) as we head off to the more somber part of our day – Auschwitz.