Krakow

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Krakow December 17 - 19
I don't know what you picture when you think of countries like Poland, but I know that I still kind of held this picture in my mind that was very Fiddler on the Roof-ish - little villages, cobbled streets - even if I knew somewhere in my mind that that was not so. Some of the places between Krakow and Oswiecim were kind of like that. However, Krakow was not; it was definitely a bigger city.
My plane took off into another cloudy sky. I am beginning to think that it is always cloudy here in the winter because I have yet to see the sun. However, once we were through the clouds, the sky was a beautiful blue. Directly above it was sapphire and towards the horizon it faded into the palest aquamarine. The clouds below sometimes looked like a strange body of water offering glimpses into their depths below where other world cities could be seen. At times I could see mountains of bluffs down below, snow covered and beautiful. Once while my side of the plane offered only clouds below us, I could see mountains jutting through the clouds on the other side. Sometimes the clouds looked like Roald Dahl describes them in James and the Giant Peach - like they could have been cities and towns and homes to creatures that we can't even imagine. When the plane would dip into the clouds, for a few seconds they were the horizon; the tops looked like wisps of cotton candy. Well, the plane landed and we were brought to the Arrivals gate. The people in front of me were having problems with customs which made me really nervous, but when I got up there she took my passport, asked which city I had just come from and waved me through. What a relief! I then managed to pick the wrong form of transport to get into town - the bus. It took forever, and I couldn't always see what stop we were at. So I panicked a bit and jumped off two stops early. I hopped back on the next bus and made it to the right stop. The stop happened to be at the train station which was connected to a shopping mall. So, I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and then went back to the station to get a ticket to Warsaw. Through miscommunication, I almost ended up with a ticket for the wrong day, but it all got straightened out. Then I hunted for a bus to Auschwitz - where I was planning to go the next day - but struck out. Too hungry to care anymore, I went to the mall's food court and got some lunch/dinner. After eating, I went back to the hostel and took advantage of the free laundry service and spent the rest of the evening reading.
On the 18th I went to Auschwitz Concentration Camp which has its own entry.
My final day in Krakow I spent wandering the city. My train didn't leave until 3:55 so I practically had all day. I didn't feel like taking any tours, so mostly I just wandered and took pictures. I went through a Christmas Market that was held in front of the Cloth Hall and bought a cheese filled pastry thing which had been grilled - it was really good. After I was tired of walking and numb from cold, I went to the mall to waste some time walking around, and I stumbled on an American Book store! I didn't buy anything but spent a good 45 minutes finding new books to add to my To Read list. I finally decided that it was time to go to the train station, so I went and retrieved my things from the hostel and went to wait for my train to leave.

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Photos

Christmas Market
Christmas Market set up in front of the Cloth Hall

The Barbican
The Barbican from the other side