Krakow, Poland

Well, I’m currently on a night train from Krakow (Poland) to Prague (Czech Republic). I was supposed to take a train earlier in the day, but a series of unfortunate events made me miss the train. It’s not too bad though, because the night train is actually really cool. I have a whole compartment to myself (for now) and a really big window that rolls down, so I’ve just been sitting and staring out at the countryside and the faint outlines of the clouds and stars as we go by. On my ipod, I’m playing a collection of songs that I’ve dubbed “train music” – songs that just seem right to be listening to whenever I’m headed to a new place. A soundtrack for my travels, if you will. Right now I seem to be going back and forth between Bob Dylan’s version of “Moonshiner” (amazing) and this awesome artist I’ve just gotten into named Gillian Welch. Her song “One More Dollar” I’ve been playing pretty much constantly. Those are definitely good train songs.

But anyway, I just left Krakow, which is a really interesting place. It’s a very old city, and actually used to be the former capital of Poland. At the center sits Wawel Castle (pronounced vah-vail), where Polish kings lived for hundreds of years. The language spoken is Polish, which is actually really hard to understand. Unlike with languages such as French or German, where if you read something it will sort of sound how it’s supposed to sound, Polish is not the same at all. Their pronunciations are nothing like the words would be pronounced in English. So even if you have a Polish dictionary or a translator, you probably still won’t be able to communicate as you won’t be able to pronounce the words properly. Many people do speak English though, as they are required to learn it in school. That made things easier, as almost all young people knew English to some extent. What else do they do in Poland? Well, they eat tons of sausage (kielbasa) and perogies (noodles stuffed with meat, cheese, potatoes, or fruit). They eat more than 80 pounds of pork per capita in Poland. Also, they have suffered from invasions and oppressive governments for hundreds of years, so they’re just now starting to stand on their own two feet. The site of the Nazis’ largest death factories, there is understandably a great deal of resentment and bitterness towards Germany. And even though Poland is in the European Union, their currency is the zloty (not the euro), because their economy has been too weak to make the transition just yet. They’ve improved a great deal, however, and plan to move to the euro in just a few years. Oh, and you can’t drink the tap water in Poland – apparently it’s not sanitary for drinking, which was a huge pain as I had to buy bottled water constantly.

Alright, so what did I actually do here? Well, on the first day, as I almost always do, I just walked around the city and got lost for a while. I started out in Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter (also called a ghetto), where more than 68,000 Jews once lived. Unfortunately, most of them fled persecution in the 30s and 40s, and today only 100 practicing Jews remain. Just to the south of Kazimierz is a dilapidated old factory, made famous by a man named Oskar Schindler. He was portrayed in Steven Spielberg’s movie Schindler’s List, and it was here in this very factory that he saved the lives of more than 1,000 Jews by employing them and sheltering them from the Nazis. This is the original factory, which can be seen in the movie, and much of the movie was filmed in the Kazimierz district of Krakow.

As I walked around, I came across a number of churches and synagogues, two of which I toured. Inside the first, I heard choir music, which I thought was being played through speakers. As I got further inside, I realized it was actually being played by an orchestra and choir. The piece started off very soft, with only a few instruments and one or two people singing in harmony. Then, about 30 people slowly stood up, and a drum slowly got louder and faster. Then, in one instant, the entire ensemble erupted into sound, filling the entire inside of the church with harmonies. It was amazing to hear – when they all kicked in, my jaw dropped. I wish I could have recorded it, because my description doesn’t do it justice at all. The altar inside was pretty crazy as well. In the other church, there was a cool crypt which I toured for only 3 zloty ($1.50).

As I continued my walk, I headed up to Old Town, and soon came to Wawel Castle, which lies between Kazimierz and Old Town. I’d heard that ticket lines could be outrageous, so I hadn’t planned on going in that day. However, the line wasn’t bad, so I bought a ticket for two of the parts of the castle (the ticketing system is really weird – you have to pay a different price for different parts of the castle). The castle, sitting atop the massive hill, offers amazing views of the river and parts of the city. Its historical significance is similar to that of the Tower of London – the royal residence of olden times. I toured the treasury and state rooms. The treasury held old relics of Poland’s past, while the state rooms were where the royalty lived and had guests. The rooms were really impressive, but pictures weren’t allowed, so I unfortunately don’t have much to show.

Leaving Wawel, I continued walking into Old Town until I reached the Market Square. As you know from my previous posts, Europe loves its lavish squares, and Krakow is no exception. In fact, this is pretty much the crown jewel of squares. I know it’s one of the largest in all of Europe, if not the very biggest. In the center is the “Cloth Hall,” where inside they had a flea market selling everything from boar skins to wooden shoes. After Berlin, we all know how I feel about boars, so I kept on walking. After a bit more wandering, I headed back to the hostel to call it a day.

Back at the hostel, I realized I had some new roommates. The prior night, there were only one or two other people in the whole hostel, so it was relatively quiet. Tonight, however, there was a “German theater group” arriving, so I assumed they would be a bunch of rambunctious teenagers. Apparently, someone had gotten the wrong information, because the German theater group was actually 22 middle-aged tourists from Hong Kong. The oldest one was 67, and they were relatively insane. They were always running around screaming things in Chinese, so I just tried to stay away most of the time. In order to get me away from the group, a girl that worked at the hostel asked if I wanted to go out somewhere. Very relieved, I agreed, and we set out around 10.

We went to a few different bars, and one of the Euro games was on, so there were a lot of people out. The first place we went to was right on the market square, which was amazing to see at night. We sat on the patio drinking Lech, a Polish beer. I was a bit disappointed, however, that the first song that we heard at the bar was T-Pain’s “Get Low,” a highly overplayed American dance song. Oh well, I’ve come to realize that American influences are everywhere in the countries I’m visiting. The most notable influence commercially would have to be Coca-Cola, which seems to have infiltrated every last nook and cranny of Europe. There are a lot of Starbucks' too.

But where was I – Oh yeah, Margaret and I had a few beers on market square, and then went to a few other bars after that. We ended up meeting some Australians who were really cool, so we talked to them for a while. At about 2:30, we all called it a night and all went our separate ways, mine being back to the hostel just a few blocks away.

The next day, after being woken up by some loud and always angry-sounding Asian tourists, I decided to go to the Wieliczka salt mine, which is about 13 kilometers outside of Krakow. If you’ve never heard of it, it is a 700-year-old salt mine that has been declared one of the 12 most important monuments in the world by UNESCO. What makes it so special is that inside, deep within the earth, the miners carved the salt into various structures and sculptures. There are more than 2,000 chambers over hundreds of kilometers, which were all painstakingly excavated by hand hundreds of years ago. Our tour took us through about 2 kilometers of tunnels and chambers of salt, and we got to see some of the most impressive carvings. Now when I say that the miners did carvings, I don’t mean that a guy with a pocketknife carved some letters into a chunk of salt. Think of a full-size chapel carved entirely out of salt, complete with altars, a huge statue of the Pope, salt chandeliers, and an amazing reproduction of the Last Supper. That was what we saw at St. Kinga’s chapel, by far the most impressive chamber of the mine. As you look at the pictures, remember that we were literally 125 meters underground at the time. It was pretty dark, but luckily I had my mini-tripod, so I was able to get some half-decent pictures in the chapel. Besides the chapel (where they still have service every Sunday), there were also tons of statues, reliefs, and other carvings that were done throughout the mine. It also had its own reception hall, where you can have your wedding at more than 350 feet below the surface of the earth. All in all, the salt mine was awesome – highly recommended. As I walked home from the bus station, I got another great sunset picture to add to my collection.

As I got back to the hostel that night, I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me. The night before, I had told Margaret (the girl that worked at the hostel) that I had never had real Polish perogies before. Thus, she brought me in some authentic, home-made perogies stuffed with cherries that her mom had picked at their own house. After being boiled and sprinkled with sugar, I’m not sure if there is anything more delicious in the world. If you ever go to Poland, get some real perogies – you won’t be sorry.

Saturday, June 21 – On this day I went to Auschwitz. See my next post to read about this day.

When I got home from Auschwitz, there was a huge festival going on in town called Wianci (pronounced vee-yon-kee), which celebrates the summer solstice, aka the longest day of the year. It’s also a time when young women wear crowns made of fresh flowers, which are then placed into the river to drift away. However, this is only done by women who are engaged to be married that year.

There were thousands of people who turned out for the festival. The band Jamiroquai was playing that night, and that’s a big deal for Krakow. I was supposed to meet Margaret and 3 other people at 8pm for the festival (which I left Auschwitz early to be home for), and after waiting 45 minutes with them never showing up, I just went back to the hostel. Upon arrival, I’m told that Margaret called the hostel and cancelled our plans, but since I don’t have a phone, there was no way for me to find that out. However, there were some more new people at the hostel hanging out in the common room, so I decided to hang out with them for a while instead.

On this night, I met some really great people. They included Trystan (from Washington state), Pim (from Holland, wearing the hat), two girls from Finland, a Polish guy, and two people that worked at the hostel. We all hung out and played card games all night, watching the Euro games in between. They were all a blast – we were up until maybe 4 in the morning before we called it a night.

Sunday, June 22 – Today I was leaving Krakow, and I slept in until about 11, after being up late the night before. I planned on taking the 2:40 train, but didn’t make it in time. What happened is this: I only had 2.30 left in Polish zloty, and didn’t want to take any more money out since I was leaving the country. However, the tram to the train station cost 2.50 zloty. Since I was only going four stops and I had never seen them check people's tickets, I just hopped on for the 3-minute ride.

I wasn’t on for five seconds before they got me. I was going only four stops, and it cost me a fine of 100 zloty ($48). The guy made me get off the train to work out the fine, and it ended up taking like 25 minutes. By the time I got to the train station and waited in line at the international ticket office, it was 2:45. I missed my train by five minutes. Instead, they said the only train to Prague was a night train, so I would have to take that. I paid for my ticket and stormed off, mad about the series of events that just occurred.

Hot and angry, I went back to the hostel and hung out with Pim and Trystan for a bit longer. After a nap and getting dinner with those two and a girl that worked at the hostel, it was off for my second round of train-catching. Luckily, I made that one in time and I was finally off to Prague.

It was sad leaving Krakow, as it normally is after meeting new people in a city. I’d exchanged contact information with the 8 or 9 people I’d met, and if I’m ever in Holland or the west coast of the US, I have some new friends to look up. I know the odds are stacked against me that I’ll ever see any of these people again in my life, but I guess that’s an incentive to come back someday.

Anyway, Krakow was great, and I can’t wait to see Prague. Hopefully I’ll meet some more great people there.

To see all 239 pictures from Krakow, click here.