Boarding the train from Budapest to Krakow, at 7pm the evening of the 22nd, I had very low expectations of the night to come. I spent the last of my Florints on snacks (except for a few coins to sell on ebay when I'm 50 after Hungary changes to the Euro) to make the journey slightly more comforting, and I boarded my train car expecting rows of way too cozy seats. To my surprise what I found instead was a small room with 6 beds hanging from the walls. I almost squealled with delight. Now to most the idea of spending the next 8 hours in a tiny room with 5 other strangers on mattresses hanging on the wall by seatbelt straps with barely room to sit up, would not be appealing, but I was at the point where just the idea of being allowed to be horizontal while sleeping was considered luxury. After spending the next few hours chatting with my friendly train car roommates, 2 American and 2 Spanish students, I fell asleep and didn't wake till the train man said to do so at 6:45 am. It was beautiful.
There to greet me at the station were my super star Couch Surfing hosts who actually woke up at that insane time to walk me back to their place. Barb and Cody are a Canadian couple (explaining the kindness) who live not far from the city center in a clean, beautifully furnished apartment with their brillaint and adorable dog Copernicus. He's a Polish breed, who looks like a Greyhound with Rottweiller coloring, and is one of the oddest things I've ever seen that I still consider cute. It was so great to be living with a dog again if only for a few days. Me and Cop got pretty tight. I miss that little, well actually very big, guy. Cody and Barb were equally as great, supplying me with maps and advice first thing so I could start my touring right away.
First thing first I walked through the main city square called Rynek Glowny where I saw this crazy statue:
Have no idea what the deal with that is, but behind it is the main market where all the tourist goods are found. Hence the I heart Krakow tourists. From there I headed down Grodska, one of the main streets, to have lunch at a place Barb reccomended called Bar Mleczny, an authentic Polish cafeteria. Her family is Polish so she speaks fluently while Cody is just in Krakow for Med school. There I had to point at a list Barb made me of menu items to order since only Polish was spoken and this is a language I can't grasp for the life of me. Their pronounciation is a whole new world for my tongue to comprehend. I had placki ziemnakane z sausem grybovym or potatoe pancakes with mushroom gravy and compot, a fruit drink made from cooked berries. It was not much to look at but delicious all the same and less than 2 U.S dollars all together. See pic below:
Across the street I stumbled upon a church called ________ which was beautiful inside and out. Take a look for yourself at the pics:
The Polish are VERY Catholic, more so than any other culture I've seen in Europe, so they take their churches seriously. This is also why they are very proud of this lovely man in white you see here waving from the window:
Ol' JP here is everywhere. You see him marbelized in several statues, commermorated on postcards and grafted onto souvenirs. May you never forget that Pope John Paul was Polish, they people of Krakow won't let you.
Then I found this weird sculpture in one of the University building courtyards:
I've concluded the Poles have a bizarre fascination with broken heads.
At the end of the street, not far from the center of town, just overloking the Wisla, or river that splits the city (as I've come to learn almost every major city has), is the Krakow Castle, a hodge podge of ecclectic architecture continually added onto over the centuries.
I wandered up into the gates looking for the ticket booth, but not finding it just entered the nearest door. Apparently this was the exit however, which I found out after having toured 80% of the state rooms already, which put Scotland to shame in their oppulence. All the walls were velvet wallpapered, or draped with intricate tapestries while the furniture was gilded, handcrafted and exactly what you would think of when imagining a grand Medival castle. I wanted to see the living quarters but when I finally found out the cost of the tickets I oppted out for chilling in the gardens, visiting the free Cathedral and exiting through the Dragon's lair. The Cathedral was the best part of it all. Every square inch was packed with ornamentation such as baroque paintings, impressive statues, black marble carvings and commerative plaques. Pictures were not allowed to prove this so you'll have to take my word that this was not just another Cathedral. It was a mother of Cathedrals for serious worship. People were praying everywhere and I even saw a nun on a tour. There nuns everywhere in Krakow it seems. The whole place was very moving.
The Dragon's Lair was in a tower on the fortress wall where you decended down stairs forever until the air felt wet and cold. The rumor is a dragon named Smog lived under the castle terrorizing Krakow until a brave hero slayed it, freeing the town. You know, the usual. However unheroically this was done by feeding the dragon a poisoned piece of meat. Like a crazy neighbor would do to hated neighborhood pets. Such a anti-climactic story. The cave however had a very mystic atmosphere, made even more intense by the presence of a dragon breathing fire at the exit. A bronze dragon that is, who looks more like a tall lizard than anything actually scary or threatening.
From there I headed to the Jewish quarter called Kazimierz where I toured around and ate at a restaurant that claimed to have the best Pierogi's in the world. They were alright. I realized I had been tourist trapped shortly after I got there and heard only English spoken after a whole day of only hearing Polish. The area of town was beautiful though and it was very cool to be in one of the oldest Jewish settlements in the world. And one with a very rich yet sad history. See Schindler's List for details, which was set in the Krakow ghetto.
(Buildings along the main square in Kazimierz)
(A piece of the old ghetto)
(Buildings I like)
The next day I just went touring around town to see the sights. Barb and Cody took me back to Kazimierz to the maket square where I flipped out over super cheap unique old pins and jewelry. Then I toured around myself to various shops and sights around town.
(The Beautiful Canadians in the one moment they were without thier best bud Copernicus)
(The Market)
(A crazy pizza-on-a-baguette snack the Polish sell at street booths. So yummy! That red stuff is hot sauce by the way. It was intense)
(Sexy Jesus doing his YMCA performance)
(A nun actually feeding pigeons. I almost pinched myself it was so cliche. Then she got on a bus where I'm assuming she got off at the orphanage and delivered penicilin)
(A beautiful fairy tale building. What's inside I have no clue but this green and rose color seem to be Eatesrn Europe's favorite building colors)
(The enormous mall by the train station called Galleria Krakowska. It was so overlwhelming I gave up looking for what I needed and booked it out minutes after entering. It is the size of 5 Krakow city blocks and having been out of the states for awhile now I was not used to the feeling of excessivly sized commercial buildings. It was probably the coolest looking mall I've seen though)
(Horse drawn carraiges are all over the city. I Even saw one that had a Cinderella carraige)
(Bazylika Mariacka in the main square)
(The town square clock tower and a stage set up for the city's modern film festival happening at the time. They projected films onto a huge wall at night which looked really stunning)
(People dressed as knights, swordfighting in the square. One of the many street performers I saw that day along with a one man band, a break dancing crew and a capoeira/drumming team)
It was a day of market shopping, snapshotting and generally experiencing the town which was lovely. I concluded the night with dinner and a movie with my CS hosts. We saw the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" to prepare me for tomorows sightseeing, which I needed the preparation for.
I hopped on a tour bus to Auschewitz Berkaneau Concentration Camp that next afternoon. This was not something I had intended to do when coming to Poland, but once the opportunity was presented, was something I felt I had to do. And I'm glad I did. It was not as intense as I expected in many ways and more so in other ways. The buildings themselves are not much to see. The Auschewitz buildings are part of an old military barracks so they are plain, fairly nice brick buildings. Nothing unlivable looking and even almost pretty with the green Spring grass. But the double layered electric, barbed wire fence with the death strip between and the sign translating to "Work is Freedom" over the enterance is a harsh reminder. As is the shooting wall. Inside the buildings there is a museum mostly showing whole rooms full of items stolen from prisoners. A room each for shoes, shaving supplies, brushes, bags, the worst of which being the room of hair which had been taken from the victims to make burlap cloth. And then there were the pictures. And the ovens.
Birkaneau was worse. Here was the extention to the camp where hundreds of wood buildings used to stand but only 4 now remain as examples of the conditions prisoners lived in. Auschewitz-Birkaneau was different however than the other concentration camps that were work camps. This was a extermination camp. This is why the end of the train tracks here was particularly sad. Fortunatly the gas chambers were destroyed in part by the Allied Forces, in part by the Nazi's themselves to cover their tracks. It's not something anyone really wants to see. Really here, it is the absence of things that seems the most meaningful because the goal of this place was to erase. To strip everything and everyone of meaning and to take something or someone and make it nothing. Therefore there is nothing really left but a feeling of emptyness. A feeling that you just want to leave.
Our tourguide told us a story of a German man who came to visit the museum and ended up recoginizing his father in a photo. He was a Nazi soldier sorting the men between the camps and the gas chamber. The German tourist was not aware his father had any involvement with the Nazi's. I think sometimes for the living, things were worse.
(The Polish Countryside on the way to the camp. Some beautiful, beautiful scenery here)
On a brighter note I will conclude this saying Krakow ended up being a much nicer city than I ever imagined. I had this idea in my head that it was much more 2nd world country, but here they have every convenience imaginable and more. It was clean, modern at parts and well preserved historically at other parts. Just like any other big Western European city. There was a green strip around the whole city and hip bars and cafes galore. The university there is stunning and has produced many famous names and discoveries that I don't know enough about to list, but can imagine by the buildings. They are immaculate and very impressive. Here's me in front of one of the buildings on my way back to the apartment:
That night I went out with Barb, Cody and some of their friends to explore the night scene. I tried beer with flavoured syrup in it, a Polish favorite, which was delicious. There was raspberry and ginger, but the ginger was my favorite because it made the beer taste like apple cider. More so than cider beer. The friends were from Cody's med school, one Polish, 2 Candian, and everyone was really nice and fun to hang out with. It was an excellent conclusion to my stay.
The next day I woke up early to catch a morning train to Prague, I was tired of not seeing the scenery and not getting sleep so I opted for the day train this time. All goodbyes were said, I bid farewell to a city and people I had come to truely enjoy, and I was on the road again.
Until next time...
-Kim
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