Krakow

Europe
November 5th 2009

Published: November 5th 2009

well things are just moving along nicely. got to teh train station an hour early last night, enough time to scope out where i was going, buy some 50% off pastries for the ride, and relax for a few minutes. so they didn't put the platform number up on the sign until about 15 mins before teh train was leaving. i head out to platform 2 and try to figure out where wagon 354 is. i go one way adn find 360, the one next to that is 348 or something, then the next was labeled something totally different. anyways i finally just walked teh lenght of teh train (since there were no workers around of course) and finally found 354 right near the end. then the worker magically appears and shows me my compartment. there could be up to three beds in there, but i was the only one! sweet! then he shows me the locks on the door. one on teh knob, one deadbolt, and one of those things you just swing over, and if by some chance they get past hte locks, the door opens a crack but thats it. kinda like the slidey chain thing except it was solid.

anyways, uneventful ride, semi-refreshed on arrival in krakow at 630am. hostel is pretty much across the street from the train station which was great, found it no trouble. as soon as i got there they let me have free breakfast which was great since i was starved. lots of weird breakfast food. the usual cocopuffs and corn flakes which seems liek the staple cereals around here. but also pickles and tomatoes, some dill flavored salad, unidentifiable meat patties. couldn't check in till 12 so i went right out to see the town.

and the weather was the pits, rain rain rain, about 2 degrees. trusty umbrella is getting in reeeeeeally bad shape but i'm still workin it. kept me dry all day.

anyways, went in to see the old town. got there by walking through the only gate left from the 1200's when the krakovians (i doubt thats what they're really called) were sick of the attacking tatars and built a big wall with a moat around it. eventually they filled in the moat which si still a park called planty which goes aroudn the whole place. headed into the center of the old down. HUGE square in teh center lined with beautiful buildings and churches and towers. St. Marys church in the square has a foundation about 7 feet below the square since teh ground has gone up that much since it was built. weird. a guy plays soem kind of horn every once in a whiel from teh top. apparantly when the tartars attacked someoen tried to warn everyone but before he could finish the song he got an arrow to the throat. so they sitll play the song and stop it in the middle every time.

then went down the street to st francis basilica which was pope john paul II's church when he was archbishop of krakow. beautiful inside, but dark. i could hardly see, and nearly ran into a few people praying haha some beautiful stained glass windows, i'm going to go back when its a bit brighter outside so i can get a better look at them and perhaps try to sneak some pics. just down the street from that is the house where JPII lived while archbishop. they really love JP around here, signs and pictures and monuments everywhere. there are still lots of flowers/wreaths/candles left there for him now.

then on to mary magdalene square. across the street is the church of peter and paul and out front there are statues of 11 apostles (no judas!) and mary magdalene. it was the center of the original krakow. i am a little churched out so i skipped going inside since i knew there were still more to come.

then of course, a fortress/castle kinda complex on a hill by the river. called Wawel Hill. has a huge cathedral which was a total mishmash of styles. started 12-13 centuryish, with pieces added all over teh place over the years. pretty cool though. you could see teh church for free, adn an extra 10 zlotys (3 bucks) to see the bell tower and royal tombs, so i went for it.

church is a fair size. but the stuff in it is unreal. so many altars, paintings, tombs, decorations... just everything ornate. pure silver tomb for Stanislaw the first polish saint from the 11th century. went up to the bell tower, where there are bells that weigh 10 000 kilograms or something like that. the stairs going up there were nuts, so narrow, old wood, and the bells looked like they were attached with pipe cleaners... old pipe cleaners... scary. they haven't fallen yet so i guess they're good for a while yet!

then downstairs to the royal tombs. although not befoer a really really rude woman working there, probably about my age, was like 'exit is there' and just pointed at the door. i was like "tombs?" after she turned away and started gabbing to her co worker. she huffed and was like "you need a ticket" and ignored me again! so i shoved my ticket in her face and pushed past her. lol lots of old tombs and not a soul down in the basement when i was there. no one. it was so echoey, and to be surrounded by dead people kinda creepy. but it set teh mood just right (especially since i was following 2 classes of primary school kids up to teh bell tower which was mucho annoying).

then i just wandered the castle grounds a bit, including this huge renaissance (can't spell that) square they call hte inner courtyard. it had the noble and kings apartments and stuff. its a big rectangle with buildings all around except on one side. on that side tehy still have the wall built up with windows and doors to make it look like a building, but when when any important visitors came they'd just bar up the windows and make them think it was a little more grand than it already was. i don't think it needed it but anyways...

by this time i was getting a little hungry and tired of walking so i went to the mall across the street from teh hostel to grab some lunch. calzone and a fanta. yum. back to teh hostel to check in and get a shower . i'm in a 4 person room on the 4th floor (which means 5th to us). with stairs only. two computers up here, a washing machine all free to use. did another load of laundry today since you have to hang them up to dry and some of my stuff will need the 2 days for sure.

then i went out for a walk through teh jewish section of town, kazimierz. i just spent like 30 bucks seeing the jewish sights in prague, so i didn't feel the need to do the same here, especially when they sound the same. old cemetery, synagogues.... so a nice walk around was great. then headed across the river to try to get soem good views back on teh old town adn wawel hill. success! got some great pics from a bridge and across the river.

then i walked back across to the original side of the river down below the castle and theres a dragon there! apparantly there are soem natural caves and therse a legend about prince krak who lived in wawel hill in a nice village but this dragon kept terrorizing them. they had to feed it all the livestock to keep it from eating all the people. so finally he stuffed a sheeps skin with sulphur which gave the dragon really bad heartburn. he keept drinking water to make it go away and eventually exploded and the town was saved.

whats the tpoint of the story? well of course now theres a statue of a dragon on the riverbank below wawel hill and he spits fire every few minutes! very cool.

anyways by this time my legs are gone so i went back to the hostel, did my laundry, read a book for a bit and relaxed until i was hungry. then i went out and had a kebab. no idea what its made of, but it had tomatoes, cucumbers (my arch nemesis! if i have heartburn tonite i'll know why), onions, some sort of meat, white sauce, spicy red sauce, lettuce on a bun/pita type thing. delicous and only 3 bucks.

now i'm debating what i'm going to do tonight. they're having a vodka tasting thing downstairs so i might try that out, or i might just go to bed. heh

oh right, so i said that the train was sketchy right? so i get here in the hostel and tehres a sign up on the wall that says, and i quote "passengers who are planning to go by a night train between prague and krakow are kindaly asked not to sleep and look after their personal belongings on the train. its known that there are many robbers who go by this train." well i lucked out anyways, no troubles!

i am flying to munich on sunday morning at the ungodly hour of 640am. at least theres a train to the airport from across the street at 5. i think i'm going to head to warsaw tomorrow for the day. a little under 3 hrs train each way but thats fine, it'll be a break for my feet. i also bought two books today at teh english bookstore in teh mall! how convenient. then i'm going to do auschwitz concentration camp on saturday. whew, gonna need to take a breather when i get to munich i think. no big plans for there anyways, i'm really only going because thats teh only place i could get a cheap flight to turkey. which leaves on tuesday!

i'll be home in 2 weeks, time is flying.

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved