gojing

3 Kittens Drinking Tea

Dear friends,

Welcome to the 12.12.2013!!! We have 12 more days until the eve before Christmas! Can you believe how time passes us by? Recently I have been thinking of it and as I grow older (not necessary more wiser, but I would love to believe that!) it seems that more and more time slips by me. A week ago my parents were here and I was taking my lovely sister and my adorable mum out for a stroll in old and beautiful Krakow...
I managed to take both Thursday and Friday off in the weekend before the wedding + Monday after. In Poland, the law allows you to have only 2 days off for your wedding - either when you have the civil wedding or when you have the church ceremony, you choose! So I took Friday and Monday + Thursday as I really wanted to show my parents around a bit. We started with a bit of shopping early in the morning, with only my sister and my mum. We went to the Main Market Square and we had a look around the Christmas Market - mum bought me a lovely long pair of woollen stockings with red ladybugs <3 and my sister a pair of fingerless woollen gloves that had kittens on it! They were adorable!
Then we bought some more souvenirs for people back home and we headed off to have a break in one of my fav places - they got to pick between Bona and the pink fluffy place with tea and sweets ;))) yes, that is exactly how I put it! :) And of course my big sister picked the pink place :) So we went to the Cupcake Corner Bakery for some amazing cupcakes ;)
I shared a tea - fruity flavoured - with my sister :) and my mum had a cup of coffee to go with the amazing cupcakes. I had a Red Velvet - which is a cocoa cake colored red, with cheese frosting and coated with red sugar crystals. Dana had a Vanilla Swirl and mum a Chocolate Swirl :) Dana wanted a teddy bear jelly on top and mum had a Snickers piece :) they both liked it very much and both agreed that was quite a sugar kick treat - one is enough to keep you going and give you a high dosage of calories. Not to mention it is all organic and fresh! :) Love! Love! Love it! :)

The lovely tea for me and my sister :)

My lovely sister <3

Having fun with my big sister is always a pleasure :) Dont we actually look like 3 kittens?! Me and mum and especially my very-kitten-like sister?! Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur... :)

A very fitting streetart in Kazimierz :)

After the very lovely cup of tea and shopping session with my mum and my sister we met my dad and we went off to Kazimierz, the old Jewish District of Krakow, and wondered around the streets so I could show them a bit of the old shops and the handmade things selling in the area. That is how we bumped into this lovely bench with this adorable 3 cats :)

Eye catching handmade sign for one of the shops in Kazimierz

Here is my lovely mum in front of the Izaak Synagogue or Isaac Synagogue -  formally known as the Isaak Jakubowicz Synagogue, it is a Prayerhouse built in 1644 in the historic Kazimierz District of Kraków, Poland. The synagogue is named for its donor, Izaak Jakubowicz (d. 1673), also called Isaac the Rich, a banker to King Władysław IV. The synagogue was designed by Francesco Olivierri, an Italian working in Poland in that era. Jakubowicz is buried in the Remuh Cemetery. Variants of the name include Ayzik, Izaak, and Isaac. Izaak is the standard Polish spelling, while Jakubowicz is Polish for a "Son of Jacob."

Lovely StreetArt I bumped into by mistake, right next to the Isaac Synagogue :)

My parents and my sister, next to the synagogue

More StreetArt :) In Kazimierz they appear like mushrooms after rain ;)

My sisters shop ;) p.s. My sisters name is Dana :)

Old Synagogue - my mum and dad visited

Old Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the Kazimierz district of Kraków, Poland. It is the oldest synagogue building still standing in Poland, and one of the most precious landmarks of Jewish architecture in Europe. Until the German invasion of Poland in 1939, it was one of the most important synagogues in the city as well as the main religious, social, and organizational centre of the Kraków Jewish community. In 1794 General Tadeusz Kościuszko spoke from the synagogue to gain the Jewish support in the struggle for Polish independence. A plaque in the entrance hall commemorates this event:

"The Jews proved to the world that whenever humanity can gain, they would not spare themselves." – General Tadeusz Kosciuszko

The Synagogue was built in 1407 or 1492; the date of building varies with several sources. The original building was rebuilt in 1570 under the watchful eye of an Italian architect Mateo Gucci. The rebuilding included the attic wall with loopholes, windows placed far above ground level, and thick, masonry walls with heavy buttressing to withstand siege, all features borrowed from military architecture.The Old synagogue is a rare, surviving example of a Polish Fortress synagogue.
The synagogue was completely devastated and ransacked by the Germans during World War II. Its artwork and Jewish relics, looted. During the occupation, the synagogue was used as a magazine. In 1943, 30 Polish hostages were executed at its wall.The Old Synagogue was renovated from 1956 to 1959 and currently operates as a museum. It is a Division of the Historical Museum of Kraków, with particular focus on Krakóws Jews. The exhibits are divided into themes dealing with birth, prayer rituals, diet, divorce and death. "The beautiful womens prayer room, which dates from the 17th century, is often used to hold temporary exhibitions.

**I did not get payed in any way to review Cupcake Corner Bakery, not to tell you about the 2 synagogues. But I do love Krakow and I do love being a guide to my friends and family so I recommend all of the above named  with all my heart ;) You will love them! Especially if you are into history and art and culture ;)**

Yours truly,
A Kitten LadyBug :)