Krakow, Poland

After leaving Prague, we continued with a seven hour train ride to Krakow, Poland. The train ride was long, but it was kind of cool because we were in a Harry-Potter-esque compartment. For the first couple hours, Katherine and I were in the compartment with four other people, so it was a pretty tight fit, and they were all quiet and reading so it was super awkward if we wanted to talk to each other, so that wasn't too fun. But then everyone had cleared out by the Polish border and Katherine and were given the chance to stretch our legs and to talk to each other as much as we wanted so it wasn't too bad at all. Finally, after a rather long train ride, we arrived in Krakow. My first impression of Krakow was a very positive one. The train station was like right next to the main central square, and our hostel was right next to that, so we found our home for the next few days very quickly. The only catch is we spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to cross the road. There were no crosswalks anywhere that we could find and it was quite a busy road. (As we later discovered, there was actually a foot-tunnel under the road that we should have gone through.

Also, when we first arrived, we immediately saw the giant Medieval market square, which we learned is the biggest Medieval square still existing in Europe, at something like 250 meters across! That's a big square. And when we arrived it was all decorated with posters and Polish flags, because we happened to arrive the day before Polish Independence Day! After crossing the square, we found our hostel, which was the best hostel in the world, I have decided. We paid something like $12 per night. And this included breakfast, an incredibly neat and clean room, internet access, helpful signs telling how to do important things like go to the airport, a kitchen with free coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and a sign telling about the various free events that went on in the hostel each night. These included wine night, cake night, pudding night, Pierogi night, and more. Although, we only were really there for wine night and cake night. Another interesting thing that happened that night: as I was laying in bed, someone came into our room and was getting into the bed next to mine who looked really familiar: my roommate from Copenhagen. I knew that she would be in Krakow over the break but I didn't think it would be while I was there, and I certainly didn't think she would end up the next bed over from me.

Flags for Independence Day

From the Medieval Square

The next day was when we discovered the lovely weather of Poland. By this I mean that it was bitterly cold and rainy. Like a rain so cold it makes you feel like an icicle. I actually wore a pair of tight leggings underneath my jeans so I could be a little warmer. The bulk of the early part of this day was spent visiting Auschwitz, which is right near Krakow. While obviously this is not the most cheerful place we could have visited, it was eye-opening and I am very glad that we went. Some of it looked just like what I had seen in photos or in movies like Schindler's list, the wooden barracks, the barbed wire fences, and the train-tracks. But there was something about being there that photos and movies can't really capture. And while most of the major part of the camp is in ruins, you can still get a sense of the massive scale of the crimes that were committed there by how the rows and rows of barracks (even if all that remains of most is the brick chimneys and foundations) just keep on going into the distance. I could talk at length about what we saw on our visit to Auschwitz, about what shocked me and what sites of horrific genocidal crimes we saw, but some part of me feels like a blog isn't really the place to do that, so I'm going to leave my visit to Auschwitz to what I have already written on the topic.

After arriving back, we continued with something that dominated much of our time in every city we visited: walking around aimlessly and exploring the city. We saw a memorial to Polish independence, which was covered in all sorts of flowers and fire, in honor of Independence day. We also saw tons of churches and remnants of the Medieval fortifications. We also found the Wawel Castle, which is a really big landmark in Poland. It was night, so we couldn't walk around on it's grounds but it still looked really cool. Finally, we decided we were freezing so we went back to the hostel to warm up, and on our day there was a large group of people singing Polish songs in the Main Market Square!

Old fortifications

Part of Wawel Castle at night.

Eventually, we went to dinner, where I had a dish that consisted of beef in some sort of really warm and hearty sauce with sauerkraut, and I really love sauerkraut, so that made me super happy. That night, was wine night, so we had a little wine, and then one of the hostel workers offered to show anyone who wanted some bars in the area. So we, and maybe a dozen others, from our hostel followed him into a very bizarre bar. On the one hand, it was nice because beers were less than a dollar. (Poland uses the Zloty, which is pronounced some way that I don't even know how to transcribe). As to the bar, it was in a small brick basement. And the entry area was decorated like a giant pirate ship, with sails, flags, and boat stuff. But then when you looked around on the bars, there were all sorts of motorcycles and motorcycle paraphanelia on the walls. And they played bad eighties American music, like Michael Jackson, which really added to the atmosphere. And the Polish guys that we were watching dance, danced like something from the disco era. It was really a fascinating bar to see.

The next day was an exciting one. First we took a free walking tour of Krakow. Our guide, a local college student, was fantastic. He spent the first fifteen minutes of the tour assuring us that he was a certified guide, because apparently the companies that charge for tours don't like the companies that give them for free, so he says they make news stories saying how the guides aren't real guides, and he made very sure that we all saw his official badge. It was kind of funny. He showed us some interesting things that we would not have found on our own. For example, we saw various interesting churches, the Jewish quarter, which has some very old synagogues in it. He also pointed out a bunch of pope (JP2) statues. John Paul II was from near Krakow, and they LOVE him there! There are so many pope statues in Krakow. He even showed us a window in a random building with a giant poster of him in the window. Apparently, one night he visited Krakow and was staying in that room and a whole bunch of Polish students stood on the ground outside the window yelling for him to come talk to them. And he came and told them to go away, that he couldn't sleep. And then he stayed and talked to them for three hours. And then whenever he came back to Krakow he would stay at that window and talk to students for several hours at night. He also pointed out various spots where scenes in Schindler's List were filmed, which was interesting because in some of the spots I could definitely vividly recall the scene they were talking about. We also ate a type of really good Polish fast food that was really cheap called Zapiekanke, which was basically a really delicious pizza with garlic and onion sauce and fried onions and no tomato sauce. Finally, on this tour is when I noticed that Krakow is filled with pigeons. They are literally infesting the main square and will land on anyone eating food that they want.

Pope window
Giant head in the Medieval Square

Me, Katherine, Polish fast food. Also, we were cold.

Pigeons. Rodents with wings.

After our free walking tour, we decided to visit another major site just outside Krakow: the Wieliczka salt mines, which are the home of the oldest continuously running salt mines in the world. These mines have been in operation since the 1200s! We started our trip into the mines by walking down 54 flights of stairs! Ouch, but we made it. Ultimately we ended up 400 feet below ground and saw some really awesome stuff. Everything there, the walls, the floors, the ceilings are made out of salt. Our guide assured us that we were welcome to taste any of those if we were in doubt, which I declined to do. The only things we could not eat were the salt art. All over there were amazing salt sculptures. Some showed miners mining the way they would have mined in the Medeival times (what a shock, it was REALLY dangerous!) and other art showed more funky things, like the seven dwarves. The most impressive part by far was the salt cathedral, complete with salt chandaliers, salt Jesus, salt Last Supper painting, salt alter (saltar?), and of course a salt John Paul II. It was a huge room, that was absolutely mind-blowing to stand in. I've never seen anything like it and I doubt I ever will again. The other thing that blew my mind was how big the whole mine system was. Tourists are required to stay with a guide at all times because there are over 300 km of shafts and you could very easily get lost in them if you didn't know what you were doing. The final exciting part of the mine was getting back to the top. Fortunately for everyone's knees they did not make us climb back up the 54 stories. Instead we all packed in to a very very small and cramped elevator that was tight, dark, and shaky. I don't love elevators and I really didn't like this one. As it was idling, it kind of bounced up and down ever so slightly, and to be honest I don't know that Poland has the same safety regulations as the US, so I really was uncomfortable. However, we did make it to the top very quickly, so quickly in fact that my ears popped on the ride!

Salt salt-miners

Chapel, with partial view of salt chandelier in upper right corner

The Last Supper

Back in Krakow for the night, Katherine and I decided to eat the most Polish meal we could think of: pierogies! Pierogies are these delicious little Polish dumplings that I'd heard of because a few friends of Polish decent told me about them and because my school cafeteria served something that they called pierogies. I word it like that becacuse other than sort of being a dumpling, they were nothing like the delicious amazing warm dumplings we had in Poland. Traditionally, they are served with a potato filling, but we had one with a delicious cabbage and mushroom filling. Also, when we got back to the hostel we discovered it was cake night. It was not, however, cake like we know it. It was really good and ridiculous sweet, but it was more like a glorified cookie. Like it was basically layers of wafers held together with an obnoxiously sweet and sticky filling that was kind of like a mix of condensed milk and caramel. Very good.
Our flight out was the next afternoon, but we still found time to fit a little more exploring in. We decided to see the Wawel castle in the daylight. It was really nice to walk around and we found a big dragon statue and entered a pretty neat cathedral. And for some reason, outside the castle there was a tile, with a star and Michael Jackson's name on it. Not really sure what that was about.

Wawel Castle

More from the castle

Us in front of the dragon

Michael Jackson memorial star?

Finally we made our way to the airport. Krakow was incredibly tourist friendly in terms of getting to the airport. Once you enter the train station to catch the very quick shuttle to the airport, there are signs all over the ground saying 'airport train this way!' It was very helpful, unlike in Rome, where it took us about an hour to find our train, after being told an incorrect platform number by the guy who sold us our tickets. Nice.

Well, that's all for Krakow, stay tuned for Berlin!