Krakow's International Airport - What happened here??

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All my life, I've had complications with my last name. Whether it's been the many mispronounciations and spoken butcherings of it, or typos on important documents, I have a very complex Polish last name. Granted, it doesn't end in a "ski" or "swa", but it's fairly long and confusing. We Polish people are also the butt of many jokes due to a stereotype of being a little slow and for being slightly behind the times. Overall, there's just this common misconception that the good people of Poland are a little offbeat. When I found out I was going to Krakow on an international study tour for grad school last year, I couldn't have been more excited. Finally, I was going to be able to visit the "motherland" as I've referred to it in the past. However, the experiences that our group had @ Karakow's airport made me rethink that old stereotype.

We headed to Krakow on a Thursday from Munich, so in no way was this a crazy travel weekend. Our group boarded up a small plane @ Munich's airport with some local passengers as we headed towards Krakow. The plane was 4 seats wide, 2 on each side of the aisle, so there really wasn't a lot of room to begin with. The flight from Munich to Krakow was just over an hour and a half long, and as we began to touchdown, I got really excited about finally being in Poland. The plane landed in what seemed to be an airport that was secluded somewhere off in the woods, with a helicopter pad and army planes right near where we landed. I'm thinking, ok, this is interesting. The plane cruised on the tarmac for a little while longer and we were able to deplane.

Now, I have to interject here. In many European airports, free tram services pick up passengers from off the runway and bring them to a gate at a major terminal. Due to the size of many of these airports, it's a very convenient service. As we deplaned from our plane, we saw one of these shuttles, thinking to ourselves, oh, it must be a ways to the main terminal. However, I had this feeling that Krakow's airport couldn't have been that big. We were on the shuttle for about 2 minutes before everyone got off the plane and the doors closed. Then, for about a good 15 seconds, we rode the shuttle from the plane to the gate. Literally, we were about 20 feet away from the gate, and yet, we had to take the shuttle. Everyone looked at each other with the "Are you serious?" kind of look. We could have walked right to the gate. I said to myself, welp, looks like we're in Poland kids.

If that wasn't enough, you should have seen the sight after we got through customs. After we all get our passports stamped, we enter the baggage claim area, which has 2, yes only 2, carousels. Again, this isn't a very big airport, so it should be no problem getting our bags, right? Wrong. Turns out the same time we were flying into Krakow, a mission trip of several Orthodox Jewish rabbis from all around the world were claiming their goods in the baggage claim area as well. Now, we are not talking suitcases and suitbags. Oh no. These guys had taped-up cardboard boxes filled with eggs, juice, blankets, toiletries, cereal, vegetables, and probably live chickens somewhere in the mix. They've literally taken up every luggage cart with their boxes, and are basically taking up the entire space in the baggage claim area. Let me tell you, it was a royal mess. I wish we had our cameras out, but everyone was in such a flutter, there was no time to take pictures. Then, on the way out, we had to fight through mobs of the rabbis and goods to get to our tour bus. They were everywhere. I certainly hope they did good somewhere, wherever they went.

Even when we were leaving Krakow, the airport wanted to charge our group nearly $4,000 in penalty fees for having overweight luggage. However, they did not understand that we had come originally from an overseas flight, where the inter-Euro weight limit need not apply. Hands down, most amusing airport encounter ever.

They'll be more to come on Krakow, because you know, we actually did get out of the airport....eventually.

Until next time, safe travels.

-Kacz

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Photos

Exterior of the Airport
Trust me, it did not look like this when we were there.

Planes at the gates
Literally, the gates are RIGHT THERE!

The Runway
Pretty open, huh?

Outside the Airport
Imagine this filled with Orthodox Jewish Rabbis. I know, right?

Comments

[anonymous]

how about a journal entry based on myyy friend penguin pat

[Lori]

Are they on Krak?
Loved it... and I can just see the rabbis with the boxes. Great blog!