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Published: April 4th 2008
Okay, don't worry, this one will be more upbeat than the last. Our hostel in Krakow was designed similarly to Cloister, although it was touching two other buildings. It had an arch running through the middle of the building, and on one side was the reception, and the other side had the rooms. It was called the Lemon Hostel, and the floors were named things like "Anana" (Pineapple) and "Kiwi", so it was great fun when people decided on their rooms, calling their group the Bananas or whatever. Some people had good rooms, but we didn't. It wasn't unclean, just a very skinny room. Anyhow, after we dropped our stuff at the hostel, we took a short walk to the Main Market Square, which is essentially downtown. It was dark out (the bus ride is about 6 hours from Brno to Krakow), and before we even got to the square we could hear drums. It turned out there was a street performance in the square, with 2 women dancing with fire, accompanied by djembes. It was pretty cool!
There our guide left us to our own devices, and we looked for food. We decided on kebabs. My experience in Europe
so far is that kebabs are the least costly dinner you can get, and they're usually delicious, if messy. The same held true for mine (actually I got a falafel that time), and it was an interesting one because there were pickles on it! After dinner we met up with more members of our group, and tried to go to a club. I say tried, because it was much more difficult than in Brno. First off, we were probably 12 people, which is hard to coordinate. So we didn't have any idea where to go, and this lady was standing handing out coupons for '8 shots that will kill you', and the French guys said, 'Yeahhhh'. I just wanted a beer, but whatever. Anyhow, so we went to the club, and people started to go in, but then others couldn't get in because they didn't have the right shoes. Maybe the shoes had to be registered with the city or something, I don't know, but so we couldn't get in there. Then we found another club but it was too crowded and so we left there too. Eventually, we just decided to buy beer ("piwo", pronounced as "Pivo", the same
as Czech) at a store and go back and drink in our room (which was actually not allowed, in case you're planning on staying there).
Fast-forward to 8 am Saturday morning: we left the hostel to go to the restaurant where we were eating breakfast, and then we started on the day's activity: tour of the city. I should mention that it was drizzling a little when we left the hostel, but the forecast before the trip said just overcast, so I knew it would turn sunny. Luckily I'd brought my umbrella, though, because essentially it rained 70% of the day. It was a little better than Budapest in that there weren't hurricane-force winds simultaneously with the water, so that was a plus. Anyhow, so of course we went in some churches. We also went to Jagellionian University (which I think is said "Yag-ewww-ee-oh-nee-an" not "Jag-ell--ee-oh-nee-an") because the l's are actually with little marks on them, which in Polish is like w. And this is the university where Copernicus studied (that guy who said we rotate around the sun, and not the other way), and one other famous guy studied here. He was pretty famous a while back, he
St. Ann's Church IV
Pretty exciting, right?used to wear a lot of white, and he would drive around in a clear bulletproof automobile. Yeah, Pope John Paul II was from a town close to Krakow, and he studied at Jagellionian. So it was weird to stand in the courtyard for one of the main buildings and imagine how many interesting folks have probably been there too. It was also strange to imagine being a student at a university in Europe and having tour groups come to take pictures.
After the uni, we walked back towards the main square. At noon we stood waiting to hear the trumpeter, who plays every hour from a tower of St. Mary's Church. The catch is that you never get to hear the whole song--in memorial to a former trumpeter who was killed by the invading Tatars in the middle of his song, every trumpeter now stops in the middle of each hourly song. Also, inside St. Mary's Church is the largest medieval wooden altar in all of Europe. Another catch, you must pay to get in, and then it's 3 more dollars to take a picture. But I didn't know that and took a couple pictures before I was
Outside of Collegium Maius
Of the Jagellionian University told to buy a picture pass (which I didn't). Okay, so it was still raining, of course, and we decided to get more kebabs for lunch, but this time from a place which is also a 'shisha bar' (hookah bar) downstairs. So we went down and got cozy, warm, and drier. It was a really cool-looking place, with pillows and rugs that looked like they were from the Middle East or Northern Africa. After lunch and coffee/tea, some of us went to the city's Jewish quarter, called Kazimierz (named after a Polish king who, unlike some other Europeans of his day, said the Jews could come on in and stay a while). Unfortunately, it was Saturday, the Sabbath-day for Jews, and not much was happening, but we saw some synagogues. By that time, the sun was finally out, so it was just nice to have a walk.
We went back to the hostel for a nap. I had only dinner left as an option for me to try authentic Polish pierogies, so I convinced my fellow travel-pals to go to a 'milk-bar'. This is an eatery for the average Joe-Pole, but they usually only use it for lunch. So
they're only open until 7 or 8 at night. We were leaving the hostel at like 6:30-ish, but as we walked down the steps to go out the door, we encountered some other people from our group staring at the closed door. "We're locked in," they said. "No, how could we be locked in?" we replied. "Well, try the door," they challenged. And, yes, the door was somehow jammed. So after a few fruitless tries, we stood waiting. Someone had to come along soon, and they would try to get in, and then we'd tell them, and they'd go to the reception, and we'd be free. We stood/sat and waited. During these five-ten minutes, the light in the hall kept going off. It is one that you click on and then it's on a timer and it goes off. So it was a group of 15 people waiting, mostly in silence with the light turning off, and being clicked back on. Just so strange and ridiculous. Well, then I had the idea to call the hostel. We had the number, so I tried to call. The first couple times I screwed it up and forgot the country code. On the
third try, I got the hostel, but for some reason I was on hold with an answering machine. So I hung up. By this time, some Americans from our group were back and trying to get in. They got a key from the reception, but it wouldn't work. There was a type of lock on the door from the inside that's used by the foot and so we switched it on and off, but neither worked. Anyhow, a few minutes later, the bus driver showed up to try. He got the lock but for some reason it still wasn't working, despite a lot of pushing. Then we realized that the bottom doorstop was on again, and once we got that, we were free!
So, I had read about 3 different milk bars in the guidebook, but it turned out that all of them were closed, so that was disappointing. After wandering around for a while, we just decided to get pizza at a place some others had gone Friday night and enjoyed. We got there, looked at the menu, and I said, "Sure", because they luckily had pierogies as well! So, yes, I got to have my pierogies, and
that made my weekend!
Sunday morning we had a couple free hours to do whatever we wanted, and we decided to go back to Wawel Castle. We'd gone the day before, but had decided not to tour it then. So we went back and got free tickets (free tickets on Sunday!!!), but they give you a time when you must be in certain places, and the time for the most interesting part was after we had to leave. However, we did get to go to the armory, which could be interesting for some people, but I wouldn't buy a separate ticket for it if you're not very interested in weapons etc. I should mention that people who went to the Royal Rooms or whatever they're called thought they were totally fancy-shmancy, so if you have the chance, see them!
A summary of Krakow: I thought it was a really pretty city, tied for me with Copenhagen as my favorite so far. The Old Town area is pretty easy to get around, and although the city isn't really big, it's got really a lot of restaurants, cafes, bars, and things. You could definitely spend two days being a tourist
Pansy, Heineken, and Town Hall Tower
The rest of the town hall no longer exists, just the tower's left! there too. Communication in English also didn't seem to be a problem either, but we were mainly in tourist areas.
Following our walk to the castle, we got on the bus to head to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, which are right outside Krakow. These mines were in business for over 900 years. During that time, the miners had some fun by carving statues and 'cathedrals' out of the salt after-hours. And today, it's essentially a tourist attraction, where they even advertise weddings and a restaurant hundreds of feet below the earth's surface. You were also supposed to buy a photo-pass for this place, but no one did, the tour guide didn't say anything, and the pics didn't turn out very well. It was moderately interesting. If you have extra time and it's easy to get there, I'd go, but otherwise, no.
So, that's Krakow in a nutshell! Have an awesome day now that it's April and it's forbidden to be bad weather from now on!
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Kathy Oxenreiter
non-member comment
kudos from home
Linda and Bill loved your blogs, especially poland part I, I don't know if they got part 2 but I will let them know it is posted. Also I think you have to change your intro now. Believe it to be a bit untrue that you haven't travelled much outside of the good old USA anymore. Do you want us to all help you pick a more appropriate one, we'd love to have a contest.