Poland: Land of the cheap... and I love it!

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Ok so…. Poland! I arrived here in Krakow on April 4, so you can tell I really like this place because of how long I’ve stayed here (I leave on the 11). I spent my first day getting acquainted with the city, taking two different walking tours. The first tour was of “Royal Krakow,” which is the old walled city and castle. The guide took us around from place to place explaining the numerous legends (everything in Poland has a story behind it which I love). We started in the old town square, learning about St. Mary’s church, the buglers, the Cloth hall market, and more. The bugler’s are actually firemen, and they take eight hour shifts 24 hours a day, blowing their tune every hour, on the hour. A little legend about the buglers is that the last note is always cut short because, as the legend goes, long ago a bugler was sounding the trumpet to signal an attack on the city was coming when he was shot and killed by an arrow, cutting the note short. Also, about three years ago Prague copied this tradition (Krakow had the original trumpet blowers), because people thought their astronomical clock was over-rated they tried to spice it up with a trumpeter.

We then walked off the main square towards the old city wall. On the way we passed the Bonerowski palace. If that isn’t funny enough, it actually used to be called just “the Boner palace,” and tourists often thought it was a brothel, and the hotel website got thousands of unexpected visitors. Now it is supposedly the finest five star hotel in Krakow. Soon we came to the old city wall and Barbican (see pics on facebook). So every city has a wall but Krakow built a barbican (small defensive fort outside the wall), for extra protection after losing some big battle and fearing retaliation. Its cool to see, tall walls, a moat, and drawbridge type thing. Now, only small preserved sections of the wall remain, and instead a large garden/park encircles the old town in its place.

Next was the castle, which was nice but we didn’t go inside any of the individual buildings, we just walked the grounds. Supposedly Wawel castle is a “chakra” energy point from eastern religion. Only others are in like Jerusalem and Mecca and places like that. Oh and I saw a guy dressed like Gandolf. In a side of the hill of the castle there is the “dragon’s cave.” And a large statue of a dragon that breaths fire every three minutes.

After seeing the castle that tour was over and I went (on my lecturer Sean O’Ceallachain’s recommendation) to the Powlakowski. This self service restaurant is really great, it serves all sorts of quality Polish foods for budget prices. I had cucumber/potato soup, a meat patty stuffed with onions, pickles, and tomatoes, fries, and a half liter beer for only about $8! I think a big reason I like Poland so much is because everything is so cheap and I’m a cheap person :P

After lunch I toured Kazimierz which is the old Jewish quarter. Here began my introduction into Poland’s dark history at the hand of the Nazis. We saw all sorts of different Jewish synagogues, and learned about the different factions of Judaism. We visited the old Jewish Ghetto, where some of the wall remains as a memorial. The tour also visited many of the famous sights from the movie Schindler’s list which was filmed here in Krakow. Schindler’s factory was here in Krakow and we saw that on the tour as well.

The next day I visited the Weileczka salt mines just outside of Krakow. The mines are not just mines, they are really a city underground. They include passageways, rooms, statues, and even a church all carved out of salt. You can lick the walls anywhere (not recommended :P) and it tastes like salt! I even managed to break off some salt that had built up and I’m bringing it back home. Anyways the mine system is huge! We walked over 3 kilometers, for two and a half hours, and our guide said we only saw about 1%!o(MISSING)f the whole mine. There were also underground salt lakes and giant caverns where people can go bungee jumping. All the supports and structures are made of wood, which is preserved by the salt so it lasts forever down there. It all reminded me of what I imagined dwarf mines in the Lord of the Rings to look like, and the carved statues of dwarves everywhere played right into that idea. *Side note: that morning I went walking around the local open air markets and found some new shoes! I got hiking boots and nice flip flops for only 105 Zloty which is like $35!

It was on this trip (to the mine) that I met Jon and his wife Rachel. Jon is an Englishman from Manchester and a really great guy. He was very sociable, generous, and funny and I spent the next day at Auschwitz with him and his wife as well as the day at the mines. I learned the next day that he is actually a politician who represents over 10,000 people in the Manchester area, which isn’t far from Capernwray.

That night after seeing the mines I went to a classical concert at the Krakow Philharmonic hall. A large French orchestra was playing Johann Sebastian Bach’s <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Passion that night and I bought a standing room only ticket at the door. It was cool to see, especially since it was easter, but I think I would have enjoyed hearing more well-known classical music since I’m no aficionado.

Saturday morning I agreed to meet Jon at the bus station to buy bus tickets to Auschwitz. And then we had a bit of an adventure. The most convenient way to get to Auschwitz is to book a tour from Krakow which costs 100+ Polish Zloty. Public transport to Auschwitz is only 13 zloty and then a guide/tour there is only 30 Zloty for a student. Well we got to the bus station at around 11AM and had to wait until 12:45 (thanks to a communist style angry cashier) for the next bus. After taking the bus, we didn’t arrive at Auschwitz until around 2:35. The next English tour was at 3:30 and was supposed to take 3 hours, which would have been fine except the last bus to Krakow left at 6:20. So instead of taking a tour, we waited until 3:00 when it opens to the public without tours (and its free). We got to walk around and see all the museums and both camps with Jon acting as tour guide because he had been there before. It was really moving. It is hard to convey with proper gravity the industrialized murder of around 2 million people and I don’t think I am qualified to do it justice so I won’t try. After seeing the second camp, we shared a taxi with another English couple back to Krakow because Jon graciously offered to pay for my share (and they needed to be back early to catch their flight home that night)

That night back at the hostel, I got to know some other people from my hostel better. I played cards with a group of Canadian guys my age (who I didn’t really hang out with outside of the hostel much but who were really nice guys), and another Canadian guy named Dave. We got talking and I learned that Dave is a teacher in Prague along with his wife Sarah and that Sarah actually went to Tauernhof in Austria (the same school I will go to on the 22)! They had found a church that did English services for Easter and I got to tag along with them Easter morning.

The Polish church service was really cool to see. It was actually a contemporary service like back home. The preacher would speak in English and then someone would translate it into Polish. And worship songs were sung in both languages simultaneously.

That night I met up with Dave and Sarah again to go out for dinner to a restaurant Jon recommended at the foot of the castle called Pod Wawelem. It was an amazing restaurant! It was like a Polish version of a giant Bavarian beer hall, with tradition costumes and fancy food on large wooden platters. The beer came in 1-liter glasses and the portions were insanely large. I had a half a chicken, with fried potatoes, and red and white cabbage, Dave had a schnitzel that was bigger than his head, and Sarah had goulash and a salad. It all tasted really good too, but the best part was that my meal was only 15 Zloty ($5) + around $3 for the beer. I love Poland! Afterwards we were totally stuffed so logically we decided to wash it all down with some Polish vodka. We tried a few different little bars that our guide had recommended, but they were all to expensive or closed for Easter. In the end we went to a 24hr grocery store and bought a few small flasks to just try the different flavors (regular, honey, lemon, and cranberry). We brought it all back to the hostel and had a nice night of cards and vodka.

Lets see, Monday I kind of took the day off, just staying at the hostel and booking things like bus tickets, and hostels for the rest of the trip. Today (Tuesday) I went souvenir shopping, did laundry, and wrote all this :D So yeah, tonight I plan on going back to Pod Wawelem and getting another amazing meal as one last hurrah to Poland because tomorrow I leave for Budapest!

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