Krakow

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Krakow is the old capital of Poland, and now has been discovered by tourists. Still, it was very pretty, and a good introduction to Poland. Poland is closer to Eastern Europe than Hungary and Czechia, and I like that, the people are tough as nails. And they love John Paul II.

Don't mess with him. Everywhere has a street named after him, they sell velvet paintings of him, anywhere he was there is a plaque. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a law that to speak ill of him is punishable by stoning.

We actually somehow managed to see none of the major tourist sites in Krakow, but we did discover Green Way. In Poland, they have cafeterias called Bar Mleczny, or Milk Bars, that are subsidized by the government. We haven't been to one yet, but you can get great polish food for very cheap. However, somehow the government decided to fund a Vegetarian milk bar, where you can get a very full plate of indian samosas, enchiladas, soy cutlets with cabbage, etc., for 3-4 dollars. And its really good. So we ate there three nights, we also bought pierogis, little dumplings, frozen in the local store and fried them up for dinner. The best pierogi are Ruski style, with potatoes and cheese.

We also made an hour and a half walk to a bizarre mound of earth made in honor of a hero, which gives a good view of the city. Europe is so weird, you're walking through a park and then boom! a brick fortress with a big grassy mound with a trail spiraling up it. And you have to pay 8 zlotych to go up it, but you can watch the sunset.

We made two daytrips- one to the Auschwitz camp, which was very moving, to say the least. It doesn't really feel appropriate to write about it here, ask me later.

We also went to the Wieliczka salt mine, which according to the guide book was named by UNESCO as "One of the top 12 sites in the world." It was cool to go 120m underground, especially with our cute guide Katya, but it was a bit too gimmicky to me. They had lots of jokes, and free salt. The floors are made of salt, the walls, a chandilier, and in the cathedral made of salt, they had a salt Jesus, and of course-

a statue of John Paul II made of salt.

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Photos

Cloth Hall
In the center of the old market square, the cloth hall today does not sell cloth, but souvenirs. It is still quite pretty. It is not actually made out of cloth, but modern construction materials.

John Paul II
A bad photo of him, but he's made out of salt. Salt!

Krakow sunset
Is it art, or is it a bad picture. Or both?

Comments

[Dinky]

Another girl!!??
David!!!! Katya?! With whom are your loyalties? [wink] I miss you. :)

[sophie]

mmm, salt
i'm glad you decided you liked me enough to send me your travel updates, finally. i've read all of your adventures thus far. salt jesus and pope weird me out a little. don't they give horses salt licks? i just imagine a statue of jesus in a stable, getting licked tenderly by a horse. anyways, have fun and eat lots of delicious vegetarian things for me.

[mom]

NaCl Rocks!
I would never think of messing with JP2. The pictures are marvelous as well as the details of your trip. How long is your blog on the internet? Speaking of trips, I want to make our reservations to Middlebury. Do you want to go early and spend some time in Montreal or an East Coast city? Since it is Labor Day, I can get up to 8 days off - 4 days of it before student orientation. Let me know what you think. Miss you. Love, mom