We have been to Krakow often enough that we are starting to seek out the smaller tourist attractions. These are often the best, anyway. Or at least the oddest.
Our goal for a couple of extra hours we had last weekend was to visit the medieval art collection at the National Museum at the Bishop Erazm Ciołek Palace. But we accidentally went into the building next door, which is the Diocesan Museum of Krakow. To be fair, there were some bits of medieval art inside, which is why we didn’t cotton on to our mistake right away. But it did occur to us that there was an awful lot of Pope John Paul II stuff on display. It just kept going and going.
As it turns out, the building was the home of Pope John Paul II, AKA Father Karol Wojtyła, from 1952 to 1967. Now it houses a collection of his possessions and other memorabilia. Despite JP II being highly venerated in his home country, we were the only visitors. It is a very odd little museum, but we liked it. (Next time we’ll check out the Bishop Ciołek museum!)
Well, That Was Different 
What an interesting museum to stumble into! I didn’t realize he was such an athlete. This reminds me of the Ataturk Museums in Turkey where his spats, clothing, toiletries kit, etc. are all on display. Every time I go to a “former home museum” of someone famous I always come out with an urge to declutter my own home. Not that I’d become famous and they’d keep all the random crap, but the idea that some future disconcerting eye would be checking out ‘my life’ via my possessions and making assumptions (probably true) about how twisted or lazy or troubled I ‘was’ – it makes me want to do some damage control. 🙂
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Haha, I hadn’t thought about that! Yeah, my craft supplies would make for a pretty weird exhibit…
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