Krakow

I'll start with Paul.

Actually, I'll start by saying that I took a close to 23 hour bus ride to get from Tallinn to Krakow and I really enjoyed it; minus the couple in front of me who felt they should recline as far as they could. Yes, 23 hours is a long time, but there was wifi, and there was food, and there were stops to stretch ones legs. And honestly, it was nice to sit and watch the world go by and have a break from walking and learning and talking and all that other stuff that goes along with travelling. So yes, a good break.

Now I'll tell you about Paul.

Paul was my couchsurfing host in Krakow. A speaker of several languages, working as a translator/linguist (primarily Japanese), amateur astrologer, and lord knows what else, Paul made time to hang out with me, join me for my walking tours of the city, help me find the best ways to get to the salt mines, which I have already told you about, and Auschwitz, which I won't, and generally debate anything. We talked alot. We debated alot. I'm not sure that it got either of us anywhere, but it did certainly making for a lively time.

You know, I'm at a bit of a loss with this post. I really don't know what to say about Krakow, and I'm not entirely sure why.

So some basics:

Did I enjoy my time there? Yes.
Did I like the city? Yes.
Would I go back? Yes.

Krakow for me was like a bigger version of Tallinn in some ways, and in fact, Prague, where I am until tomorrow, is kinda like a bigger version of Krakow, again, in those same ways. Those ways though are primarily superficial, and I suspect are common across many of the "old towns" in cities across Europe. And pretty much that is where I have been spending much of my time; in the old towns. They're pretty. They're accessible. They've got free walking tours where someone tells you all about the history of this and that, and makes suggestions on where you should go visit after you're done walking around for half the day. But it has me being a tourist, and not a "traveller". I previously split that hair so won't do it again. I'm not super thrilled about it, but I'm also not quite sure what the solution is either. Certainly being places for longer periods of time will help, but that doesn't happen for a while longer when I head to Marrakech. Guess we'll see.

Anyway, I think why I'm not sure what to say is because, well, the walking tours were not, to my mind anyway, very memorable. I say that because I hardly remember anything. Now, that may be because my head is full of stuff about Prague now, or perhaps it is because I am starting to suffer a certain amount of mental fatigue relating to the things I am hearing about. I'm not sure.

So my apologies if this entry sucks.

One of the big differences about my time in Krakow was that it was highly organized. With two "out of town" trips and two walks wanting to be done, and only three full days and a couple of partials in which to do it all, I got pretty structured with my time, something I haven't been for a few weeks now, and something that I don't particularly miss, as I have now discovered.

Okay, let's get on with the pictures and we'll see where this gets us.

This is the opera house in Krakow. It's modelled after the one in Paris.

And has some lovely fellows ringing it's dome. I have no idea who they are, if anyone.

On the way to our first walk Paul took me to a little market off of the main market square. It's full of huts with people selling all sorts of traditional foods, toys, bits and bobs.

Never, ever eat here. It's the typical tourist trap where you pay outrageous amounts of money because apparently you don't know any better. That appears to be the rule everywhere I've been so far. Prices are at their highest in the old city square, and then decrease the further you walk out. That "further" could be only 100 metres mind you. So, if you think you can handle walking just a tinsy bit further, chances are you can pay reasonable prices for your "authentic, fill in the blank for the city/country you're in" meal.

Now, all that said, I did end up eating in this market once, but in my defense I had about 20 minutes to find food between getting back from the salt mines and starting my Jewish Quarter/Ghetto walking tour and it was the one place closeby that I knew I could get food immediately. And it was tasty food, don't get me wrong on that. Just expensensive. Mind you, I did meet Taylor there, and he joined the walk as well. Taylor is originally from Texas, went to West Point, just finished up his tour of duty over seas, and was taking a little trip around Europe prior to being back in Kentucky to continue his graduate studies. Happy to have met him and spent a few hours chatting. So I will amend my previous statement. Sure, eat at the market, just make sure you talk to new people and get to know them a little. That is certainly worth an over priced chicken kabob and mushrooms.

This is St. Barbara's. It is one of three churches on the square.

This is the rest of the triptych.

This is the main square of the old city. I don't know if the new city has a square so perhaps that qualifier was unnecessary.  Anyway, here it is.

The big building in the back is the Cloth Hall, and actually divides the square in two, so there's more square on the other side.

This is church number two on the square. Number two in the order I am presenting them, number one in terms of size. It is St. Mary's.

Paul and I snuck in the side to take a peak and it is absolutely stunning. Pictures were not allowed though.

This is St. Aldabert's, the third, and oldest church on the square. I believe there was a church on this site starting in the 11th century or something nuts like that.

It's tiny.

But has a cool ceiling.

St. Aldabert's provides an excellent visual for the accumulation of waste in cities over the centuries. The original entrance to the church is accessible from the sqaure by walking down a flight of stairs. It's about two metres lower than the current street level.

This is the Town Hall Tower, all that remains of the town hall.

And again, this is the Cloth Hall, just from another side. Perhaps it's better side? Does this make it look slimmer? The Cloth Hall dates from the Renaissance and was the centre for International trade in Krakow, which up until the end of the 16th century or so, was the capital of Poland. The capital moved to Warsaw. Krakow is still displeased about that.

This is art.

I've gotten into the habit of taking lots of random street shots, mostly because all the streets are just so darn pretty.

This is the church of St. Peter and St. Paul. I did not go in. We were introduced to it as part of the old city walking tour I did.

Had it been a Thursday I would have definitely gone in as they have a Foucault's Pendulum there that they set up on Thursdays, I guess to double check that the earth is still rotating or something like that. And who knows, maybe one day they'll discover it's not, and then just wait and see what starts trending on Twitter.

And honestly, I just loved Eco's book, that's why I get so excited by the things.

More random shots of the city that happen to be, oh what's that?, yes, another church. I have no idea which one. Krakow has alot of them. And I mean a lot.

Similar to Tallinn, Krakow also has a nice ring of green around the old city, separating it from the new.

See, the problem with just showing picturs sequentially, but not showing all of them, is that somehow we're now back in the main square watching brightly coloured people sing and dance and we have no idea where we got here from. Well, neither did they I suspect.

This is one of the peaks of  St. Mary's.

If you look closely in the window you will see a trumpet. It is being played. At the top of each hour the same tune is played four times from the tower, out of four windows, in four different directions. It's an odd little tune, and quite short. The piece is actually longer, but they don't play it all any more, but instead stop at a specific point part way along. Why? Well, apparently this tune has been being played for a very long time, and it's partly to let every know that all is well. Well, part way through the tune one time an invading army shot the trumpeter part way through the song. All was no longer well. Ever since they stop the piece at that point.

Random street.

This is Jagiellonian University, once home to such bright sparks as Copernicus, he who got the sun in the right place and would bowl 175 on a bad day, at least, that's how I interpreted his statue in Wieliczka. I could be mistaken though.

And this is their musical clock with the lovely little people parading around it every hour.

A less playful, more studious looking Copernicus.

The next few are of Prague Castle of which I have very little to say.

Okay, I'll say this though. That really is one of the greatest hodge podges of architectural styles that I have yet to encounter.

This is a stairwell that I was expecting a body to come sailing down from at any moment.

No particular reason.

And these are some trees where I expected someone to be dragged behind and shot.

No particular reason.

And this is the gorgeous interior of a church whose name I do not know that I can totally picture somebody being stabbed at the front of.

No particular reason.

Perhaps I watch too many gangster movies.

My last afternoon was spent doing a walking tour of the Jewish quarter/ghetto. I will openly admit to being confused about the different neighbourhoods we were taken through, but how I think it goes is that the first few pictures you're about to see are where the Jewish quarter of the city used to be prior to Nazi occupation and the last couple are of where the ghetto was during the occupation.

So those are the quarter.

And then we crossed the bridge and went to where the ghetto once was.

Yes, those locks again. I included these ones as I now have an explanation. Apparently couples come along, write their names on the lock, lock it to the railing, and then toss the key into the river.

Two words people: Wino Forever.

Okay, I shouldn't say that. It makes me sound sour about the whole idea of lasting relationships, and in all honesty, I'm not at all sour about it. I continue to live in hope, believe in them, and have seen some incredible ones. You'll all be happy to know though that that's all I'm ever going to say on that topic in this blog.

I'm certainly relieved.

This is just a really cool piece of graffiti, which is a word that I almost always mess up. I want to give it one "f" and two "t's" all the time. And the web interface I use for writing the blog does not come with red squiggly lines everytime I screw up spelling something.

Anyway, I don't know if you can see it because of the dappling light, but just to the left of the branch on the bell part of the megaphone is the crossed key symbol of the Vatican. Boy, did people love this one. Anyone recall where Pope John Paul II was from? Yep. Krakow.

This square is a central point of what was once the Jewish ghetto. It is now something of a memorial, but during the occupation of Poland was where people were rounded up and sent off to the camps, be it Plaszow, which was very near by, or Auschwitz-Birkenau, about 70km away, or one of the others.

Perhaps now's the time to mention that, yes, I did go to Auschwitz-Birkenau, but it's not something I am going to talk about here. And yes, I did take pictures; but again nothing I am going to post here. I've said a few times that I shouldn't talk about things I know so little about. This is most certainly one of those times.

I will though share one thing that I learned.

This part I knew: When people arrived in Auschwitz they had all of their personal belongings taken away from them. Often these would be items of great value, as, believing they were simply being moved somewhere else, they packed the valuable things to bring along. All of these items were stored in two warehouses in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

This part I didn't: Those warehouses came to be known as Kanada I and Kanada II. Why? Because Canada was seen as (and these are not my words) "the promised land", and the riches in these warehouses spoke to that.

I really don't know how to feel about that.

Back to Krakow.

After the walk Paul and I hung out for a bit with Hillary, a Canadian we met on the walk who had been living in Ireland for the past year and was now doing a little bit of travel before heading home, and the aforementioned, Taylor. Then it was home, and sampling a few of the liquors Paul's mom makes -  I liked the plum one the most I think - and then it was off to bed so I could be up and fresh and ready for my bus to Prague the next day.

And that's where you find me now.

You'll find me tomorrow on the bus to Budapest.

Happy Thanksgiving.