Krakow - Poland's Jewel

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A woman I did a day tour with in Prague had just come from Krakow as part of her holiday, and she was obviously very impressed with the place, as she described it as 'the next Prague'. Personally , after my own visit, I think she was pushing it a little, but I certainly understand what she meant.

Krakow isn't a particularly big city (around 800,000 people), but it has plenty of character, and plenty of history behind it. While not as busy as Prague, I certainly wouldn't say that it was undiscovered though.

The old city centre is very impressive - with a large market square thriving with activity (predominately tourist related), and the castle (yes.....anther castle) just outside this area can't be missed. Interestingly though, just a few tram stops out from the centre of the city and you hit something quite different. Something that one person described to me as 'a socialist housing experiment gone horribly wrong'. There is just street after street of dull '50s apartment blocks......... all looking pretty much the same.

This led to a bit of confusion upon arrival, as I had been given an incorrect address for the apartment I was renting. When I discovered this, I called the owner to get proper directions. Unfortunately I couldn't pronounce the street name that I was in to let him know where I was (have you tried Polish?)..........so he asked me what colour the building was that I was standing in front of. I almost laughed - they're all the same! Anyway......I eventually found the place, and while drab and dreary from the outside - the interior was newly renovated.

Apart from my exploration of the city, I also went on a day trip to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. On my last trip to Europe I went to a concentration camp in Germany itself, but it was nothing like the scale of things that I saw here. Birkenau is simply massive.

On a lighter note, I went on a separate tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine (several hundred metres underground). I took a Mars Bar and an autograph book (in case Kochie was there to greet me at the surface), but thankfully neither was really necessary. I found the salt-carved displays to be a little tacky, but the tunnels/mine itself was worth a look. One of the chambers was the decorative Chapel of St. Kinga - with everything carved from salt of course - including a salt version of the Last Supper.

Language difficulties really weren't an issue. I found that fewer people spoke English than in other cities I had been to (though most of the young people in Krakow did seem to know English), but even with those that didn't, it appeared as though they were quite tolerant of my inability to speak Polish, and were genuinely keen to help. This made the 'point and mime' act a little easier to perform.

Overall, I'm glad that I made the effort to venture into Poland to have a look at Krakow.

On my enjoyment scale from 1 to 10 - where 1 equates with grey salt-carved figurines, and 10 equates with Bison Vodka (I'll try to bring some home)....I would rate my experience with a 7.5

I'm now in Berlin, so not much more of my holiday to go!

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Photos

Town Square
Too big to capture in one picture....this is just part of it

Old Town Entrance
Part of the old city fortification

Outer Residential Street
Not quite as pretty

Birkenau
Train tracks into camp

Birkenau II
Again....the scale isn't captured here

Wieliczka Salt Mine II
The Last Supper