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Published: December 23rd 2006
This trip is full of firsts. This time, the first time I’ve happily given up the option of a nice soft bed in favour of a night on the airport floor. My flight back to Krakow left Glasgow before the first train out of the city started, the lady at the station actually recommended that I spend the night at the airport! Who am I to argue.. given the crazy UK prices I was kind of stoked to have an excuse to have a free night.
Krakow is the tourist capital of southern Poland. Travelling to the UK gave me the perfect opportunity to explore this corner of the country - flights to and from are cheap and regular, and the rail link back to Wroclaw is easy, though 4h long :/
I had a few days in the city both before, and after the UK. It’s really nice, it’s nestled at the foothills of the Tatra Mountains that form the Poland-Slovakia border. Although Auschwitz is very close, most the buildings escaped the war unscathed.. the town centre is really pretty. Hmm... “nice, “pretty”, you may be surprised to hear my first stay here degenerated into a touristy sightseeing
extravaganza.. my second stay was boosted by Asia coming to escape the reality of a working world, making her a first-time tourist in her own country 😊 The photos speak for themselves..
Speaking of "speaking".. Polish is a terrible language to try to learn.. I found Russian easier! It’s based on the Latin alphabet which may seem like an advantage, but many letters sound distinctly different and they use cz, sz, ci, dz & w’s a lot.. to me they all sound the same - like the ch in “chook” with or without a bit of spray :/ a taster:
Polish: ----- Pronunciation:
dziewczyna ----- dzhehfchinawng
zarezerwowaliśmy ----- zahrehzehvovahleesymi
chciałbym ----- htshahw bim
Once again, my valiant efforts to form simple words have been met with much mirth 😊 My one respite from being the centre of any english conversation was a much anticipated trip to an english movie (with subtitles of course). Attempts to translate the title on the poster for me fell on deaf ears - truth be told, I was so happy with the thought of being able to sit down, relax, and just listen for a few hours I didn’t really care what
Clocktower
Krakow square again, on duskthe movie was... that was until it started, the first line “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad” - my jaw dropped and the rubbery theatre popcorn tumbled onto my lap as my mind struggled to comprehend what was happening.. “two hours of this!?..” I thought! It was the
Merchant of Venice, I haven’t heard Shakespeare since school and it confounded me even then - with the cheat notes!
Not wanting to concede that I couldn’t understand english either, I was in for the long haul... Maybe it was the movie, my state of mind, or merely the fact that I wasn’t at school anymore.. but it was brilliant 😊 It’s not often you sit in a movie theatre full of laughter and applause (albeit occasionally mistimed as the subtitles appeared) for two hours.. the first time I’ve really, truly enjoyed Shakespeare! (aside from a Midsummer’s Nights Dream of course Andy 😊 )
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Andy
non-member comment
well,
it goes to show how much attention you paid - it was Much Ado About Nothing... but now that you've started on the whole classics road, I see no reason for you to stop, so perhaps I shall send you some Dickens to be going on with.