...except, of course, for the fact that there's really no escaping it.

It's always in the news, most often for all the ugliest reasons.

It's painfully apparent, even here in Kraków, in the glowing signs at McDonald's and KFC.

Today, nearly a year and a half since last I laid eyes on 'the New World', I was asked if I ever felt homesick.

My first, fast answer was a simple, straightforward 'no'.

But then, after a moment's reflection, I corrected myself.

'Yes,' I said, 'once, at the end of a 15-day business trip to Warsaw. I found I was feeling homesick for Kraków.'

Home, I learned long ago, has nothing to do with the place of one's birth, and everything to do with the place of one's heart.

Mine is here.

In Kraków.