Krakow, Poland

Poland has never been a place I’ve really wanted to go to; in all honesty I’ve given it very little thought and had low expectations when I did actually go. I wasn’t surprised that when we arrived in Krakow it was foggy and dreary, but in spite of how it started Poland surprised me. I can’t say it was a really fun trip, it was more of several life changing experiences piled into one weekend. We were constantly in motion moving from Krakow to the Divine Mercy Shrine to Auschwitz and then to Czestochowa. We were so busy that if lunch wasn’t on the schedule, and it never was, then there wasn’t even anytime to eat. But it was a sacrifice and that made Poland a pilgrimage, not a vacation.

We left Thursday, September 22 in the evening to embark on a twelve hour bus ride. I hate buses now … that’s all I have to say about that.

We arrived Friday morning in Krakow where we had a tour led by our guide Piotr. The first place he led us to was Wawel, the royal castle in Krakow that had a replica of a once real dragon outside of it.

He told us a story about the dragon and said that back in the day the dragon was eating all the cows and sheep in the town and then began eating all the virgins. When the princess was the only virgin left in the town the king said that anyone who could kill the dragon could marry his daughter and have the kingdom. No young man was able to defeat the dragon like the king expected. Finally, a shoemaker came along and said he could do it but the king did not believe him. The shoemaker proceeded to make a fake lamb which he filled with sulfur and set outside of the dragon’s cave. When the dragon got hungry he came out and ate the sheep. This made him thirsty so he went and drank water out of the lake and then exploded.

I’m not quite sure what I think of the story. The ending doesn’t really make sense. Coreen didn’t think it made sense either so she just made up her own story. Her version went something like this …

“There’s this king who was the king of all of Krakow and there was this big, scary, monster dragon that lived in the village. In order for the big, scary, monster dragon not to take over the kingdom the king would give the dragon sheep and animals to keep him fed and so he wouldn’t eat the villagers. When the dragon had eaten all the animals they started giving the dragon virgins but soon the princess was the only virgin left. The king didn’t want the princess to be eaten, obviously, so he announces that any man in the village that saves his daughter can have half of the kingdom and marry the princess. Meanwhile, there’s a young village shoemaker who heard the announcement and came up with a brilliant idea because he was brilliant. His brilliant plan was to make a fake sheep and fill it with sulfur. When the dragon sees the lamb outside of his cave, he eats it … only it’s not a lamb, it’s a fake lamb filled with sulfur. When he realizes it’s not a lamb he tries to kill the shoemaker by breathing fire on him. But when he goes to breathe fire on the man he sets himself on fire. To try and put the fire out he rushes to the river and starts drinking all of the water and he fills up so much that his body explodes. Then the radiant, handsome, rugged shoemaker whisks the princess off in his pink limo (as seen in London) and they live happily ever after. The end.”

After hearing both versions of the story, I don’t know what to believe. But nevertheless Piotr said that the story was complete truth and that a bone of the dragon was hanging outside of the Cathedral.

After the dragon story we went and saw the courtyard of the royal castle and then we headed to the Cathedral. Sure enough, just as Piotr had said, right by the entrance was the dragon bone. I’m still not sure, even after seeing the bone, if I believe the story about the dragon … but Piotr seemed convinced it was real, so more power to him!

The Cathedral was beautiful. It was where JPII was ordained and where he became bishop so that was special! : )

Coreen was almost left behind at the Cathedral … it was a terrifying experience! She stayed inside too long and when she came out the group had already left. So the two of us were left … alone … two lost sheep and had to find our way back to the group. (Actually, it wasn’t that dramatic, the group was still in sight).

After visiting the Cathedral we went to the church where Maximilian Kolbe was a priest. It was a gorgeous church, as most churches in Europe are. One unique thing about this church was a stained glass window of God at the creation of the world … it was pretty intense and if you don’t believe me just look at the picture.

After Maximilian Kolbe’s church we stopped by a memorial display of JPII that had a whole bunch of pictures of him. My favorite was JPII tying his shoe, it was fun. Then we went and saw JPII’s university, Jagiellonian. It was the oldest university in Poland.

After that Piotr allowed us to have “free time” (he runs a very tight schedule). It was 10 a.m. and we were starving so finding food was our first mission. Kim, Coreen and I converted our money into zloty and then found a McDonald’s to eat at. Yes, a McDonalds. Some vowed never to eat at one in Europe but I believe sometimes you just have to because it’s cheap.

I definitely got really excited at McDonald’s because they had some chicken fingers of sorts. So Kim and I ordered those only to find out that they were really, really spicy but seeing how the menu was in Polish we had no clue. It was all right though. Kim had a small amount of water which we rationed in between bites.

Another random thing in the McDonald’s was that a pigeon flew in and was walking around on the ground. It tried to take a bite out of Coreen’s leg … she wouldn’t share her cheeseburger with it. Then one of the workers came over and yelled at it in Polish and the pigeon flew right out.

Piotr told us in Poland we would feel like millionaires because the conversion was 3 zloty to every 1 U.S. dollar. So everything we bought we just had to divide by 3 and that would be the price we had to pay. Kim, Coreen and I were quite excited to start shopping after McDonald’s but every store we came across was really expensive. This was a letdown until we found the market which was amazing and cheap!

After our shopping spree the three of us met up with Mark and went in search of food. (I’m sure it’s starting to sound like we eat a lot … well, we do). We were running out of time so we stopped at a quick pizza and kabob shop. Coreen and I got pizza, it was disgusting. I finished most of it because I was hungry. But Coreen on the other hand said she wouldn’t be happy with the pizza so she ended up buying a kabob as well!

Then we loaded up the buses and headed to the Shrine of the Divine Mercy.

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