Krakow, Poland

To continue our whirlwind of winter travel (31 days out of 59 out of town, starting with the trip to Istanbul), we took a weekend trip to Krakow, in the south of Poland.

There aren't too many airlines that fly into Krakow, and in order to get cheap flights and still see everything, we had to leave on Saturday morning and come back Monday afternoon. Not the ideal situation, but the city is super cheap, which made the extra night not hurt so bad. We were able to rent a studio apartment (not much smaller than our London flat) right in the middle of the city center for only $70 per night, so we were really grateful for that.

It was now December and starting to get cold in Europe, so it was time to break out the winter gear - heavy coats, long underwear, big sweaters, and in the case of Jenna, even snow pants!!

The highs were in the low 30s, which isn't as bad as some days from college, but there is a huge difference between walking between classes and spending all day touristing, so bundling up was definitely a necessity.

Saturday, December 12th

We got into town just before lunch time, which allowed us a few minutes to drop our bags off and poke around town before grabbing a bite. We walked around the main market square, which I guess is normally pretty nice on its own, but was even better for us as they had set up a nice Christmas Market.

The main draws of the market square are the large cathedral and the market hall.

Centuries ago, like in most cities in Europe, merchants came here to set up shop in the square. After some time, the city created a permanent structure (which is less common) where these merchants could work from. Today they sell mainly tourist goods, but it is still a nice building.

The church is much like others we've seen, but does have an interesting story. One of the towers actually belongs to the city, and was used as a lookout point for protection purposes. During a Tartar invasion, the guard in the tower saw the approaching army and started to sound a warning song on his trumpet. Half way through, though, he was shot by an arrow. In honor of his courage and attempt to save the city, they now blow the same warning song from the windows of the tower on every hour. A group of 12 city firemen are now assigned to bugle duty, and take 24 hour shifts in the tower with the job of sounding the hourly call. Even more interesting...they cut off the song mid note to signify the original guy getting shot!!

We didn't stay in the market square for too long, but headed off for lunch and a tour of the rest of the town. Poland was/is famous for its "milk bars". During communist rule, the government wanted people to be able to afford a meal at a restaurant every once in a while, so they created these milk bars. They served cafeteria-style food (including milk!) and were subsidized by the government to keep the prices low. After communism fell, they decided to keep them around, and they are still partially subsidized, so you can get a great meal for a really good price.

We enjoyed some traditional fare (pierogi, chicken fried steak) before heading out on the town. We were in a bit of a hurry since we weren't really starting until late, but it turned out that with the cold we didn't linger as much at the outdoor sites, so everything went by pretty quickly.

We walked down the main shopping street down to Wawel Hill, which is where the old castle and cathedral are. We climbed the hill for some good views of the city and river. We also went into the cathedral there, which was nice, but for us the best part was probably just the fact that it was warm.

After finishing on Wawel Hill, we returned to the market center to tour the cathedral there. On the way we made a quick stop into the All Saints church, which was a surprising treat. It was listed as a less important site in our guide book, but we had some extra time and decided to go in. It is dedicated to the disciples, and has 12 statues (Judas replaced by Mary) sitting on the gate out front. It wasn't particularly marvelous or anything on the inside, but it was very open and not at all crowded, which made it very peaceful.

The main cathedral on the market square (St Mary's) was much like the one on Wawel Hill - memorable for being warm, but not much else. We do still like going into these European cathedrals, but most of them just don't offer anything to set them apart.

When we left, we had pretty much seen all of the main sites to see in town, which was pretty surprising as we'd only spent about 4 hours there. It gave us the opportunity to relax a little and not worry about running around town, which was nice. We poked around through the Market Hall and the outdoor Christmas market, which were both very nice. We ended up with an ornament and a few other Christmas decorations for the house before going back to the room to change for dinner.

Dinner was a bit of a problem. Our blog/Global Exchange friends, the Willinghams, had highly recommended one restaurant in town, so we really wanted to go there. Turns out that with it being near Christmas, reservations were a requirement not only there, but pretty much everywhere in town. We tried a few guide-recommended places, but to no avail. We ended up at another milk bar, which turned out to be good but we were a bit disappointed that we ate at a cafeteria two meals in a row, but it was really cheap!

Sunday, December 13th

Sunday was our day to see the infamous Nazi concentration camp - Auschwitz.

On Saturday morning, Jenna had woken up feeling pretty sick, but fought through it while we travelled and felt better by the time we got to town. Sunday was a different story. She woke up feeling terrible, and although she tried her best to get up and around, there was no way it was going to happen. After a few arguments back and forth (she telling me to go alone, me telling her to just come sick), I finally gave in and left her to rest, and spent the day at Auschwitz alone.

Because of the subject matter and the everything else surrounding the camp, it will be covered in a separate post...

It was a good idea that Jenna stayed back, because her health definitely did not improve any time soon. She spent the entire day sleeping on the apartment couch. Still not sure what kind of bug she'd gotten, but it was definitely not fun for her. I returned at around 5:30 to find her up and about, and starting to feel like she was able to go out.

We didn't have any real agenda, so we just wandered around the market square, looked back through the Christmas market to make sure we hadn't missed out on any treasures, and just generally people watched.

For dinner, we headed back to the suggested spot - Miod Malina - this time with a reservation. We were a little disappointed with the table (very near the cold wind of the front door), but the food and service were great. This was a very fancy meal by Polish standards, but we were able to get away with the full deal for about the same as we'd spend on an average dinner in Dallas. Krakow is definitely the place to be if you're trying to see Europe on a budget!!

Monday, December 14th

Our last day in Krakow was pretty uneventful. The only Easyjet flight leaves at Krakow in the early afternoon, so we didn't have enough time to really do anything. We slept in a bit, took our time getting ready, and then headed off. We made one last lap around the market square, and then headed to the shopping mall to kill a few minutes before grabbing out train to the airport. The mall was enormous - 3 stories - and all decked out for Christmas, so that was nice. We basically just wandered around, popping into a few shops here and there until it was time to head for home.

As I read back through this post, I'm sure that you're probably thinking that there is no reason to ever visit this place. I don't really know what to change to make it sound better, but we really did have a great time (aside from Jenna being sick, of course). There weren't a ton of sites to see and the things that were there probably won't make it on our top list of sites in Europe, but for some reason we still really loved it. Maybe the lack of "touristing" is what made it so great. It felt like the place wasn't completely cramped with tourists, and it was really nice to be able to see a city at such a relaxed pace. It was also a great place to go to before Christmas, because the entire city was decked out with lights, trees and Christmas decorations that really put us in the Christmas Spirit! There is a good chance that we'll never be back in Krakow again, but we sure are glad that we made the trip.