Krakow, Poland

The entry below details my time in Krakow, Poland - Sept 26 and 27, 2014

Sept 26, 2014:

I wrote about the overnight train from Budapest in the Budapest post, so this starts with arriving at the train station in Krakow.

After arriving at the train station in Krakow, I quickly found an ATM to get cash and then went on a hunt for a taxi.  I had figured out that my hotel was no where near public transportation, so taxi was going to be critical.  There were many signs directing you to taxis; however, all of them ended being useless...no taxis.  Perhaps it was too early for the Polish taxis?  When following the fourth set of taxi signs, I finally found one...literally one that was half-way parked on the sidewalk, taking a smoke break.  He took his time in finishing his cigarette and then had to review the address numerous times before agreeing to take me.

I got to the hotel and was hoping for the best in getting an early check-in.  It was raining quite heavily and I didn't feel like walking around in the rain...a bed and/or shower sounded much better.

The front desk agent was very friendly, but said the room was not ready.  There was some Polish exchange between several of the folks behind the desk, some computer keyboard punching and suddenly she said that it would be ready in one hour.  Perfect - I'll have breakfast in the hotel and investigate tour information for the salt mines and Auschwitz.  Marta - the wonderful front desk agent - gave me plenty of information and after some review on my part she quickly booked my tours - salt mines on Friday afternoon and Auschwitz to start on Saturday morning.  I continued to talk with her about dinner recommendations for tonight.

I moved on to breakfast.  The staff was very confused that I didn't have a room number...I tried to explain that I was waiting to check in and just wanted to pay for breakfast.  

When I went back to the desk after about an hour, the room was ready and Marta gave me my key.  When she sent someone to get my bags, then we started talking about my trip and she was fascinated.  She wanted to know of all the places that I have been and where was still left.  She had traveled some to Thailand and mentioned a few beaches.

When I got to the room it was quite nice - Marta had upgraded me to a suite!  Perhaps that had been all the discussion initially - whether they could give me that room.

When I was having breakfast, the person next to me mentioned that she had done laundry the night before - in the hotel.  I figured out that the hotel had laundry machines on two floors, so I went to check them out.  One washer and one dryer on two floors and they were free.  However, I needed to get detergent.  Luckily the pantry of the hotel sold packets of detergent.  I wasn't in dire need to do laundry, but when I have an opportunity like this, why pass it up?  I needed to shower anyway, so my clothes could be washing while I got ready...and then hopefully things will be ready so that I can go out to grab a late lunch before the Salt Mine tour.

Ah, the makings of great plans...

I was fooled again by the anticipated efficiency of the laundry machines in Europe.  Each washer took over 2 hours and the driers were over 1.5 hours each.  My room is on the 5th floor, but the laundry is on the 3rd and 6th floors...so I was running up and down the stairs many times, especially during the first 30 minutes of the dryer cycles...thinking that I would need to pull my dry fit items out sooner.  If it is any indication of the effectiveness of the dryer - my dry fit shirts which felt pretty dry when coming out of the washer, took an hour to dry!

Between the laundry marathon and the continual hard rain, I stayed in the hotel until time for my Salt Mine tour at 3:30.  I grabbed a late lunch in the hotel restaurant - a Caesar salad with grilled chicken.  As compared to the "Caesar Salad" in Argentina, this attempt was bit closer.  Romaine lettuce - but no more than a handful, lots of shaved parmesan cheese and a Caesar-esque dressing.  The dressing had a consistency closer to water, so I'm afraid there may have been milk.  The chicken certainly dominated the salad...it was good, but numerous times I questioned if it was fully cooked.  The texture was certainly not like any chicken I've ever eaten before.

There was a TV on in the bar/restaurant...I realized as I was watching it, that I've not watched TV at all on my trip.  I just don't turn it on in the room and rarely think about it.  I have seen posts on Facebook about the new Fall season starting in the US...so I'm a little excited to catch up when I get home...hopefully the DVR clean-out I did before leaving will be enough space to record all of the season passes I have set up.  Today the channel was a news station, all in Polish, but I could see that there was a big story about an airline flight - finally I had to ask the server what the story was - it seemed so serious since that was all they talked about for the entire time I was eating lunch (I had even pulled up CNN.com and other news sites to find out more...but nothing!).  She knew that it had been an emergency landing, but idea when, where or why.

Very soon it was time for the Salt Mine tour.  I had never heard about the famous salt mines in Poland until about 3 weeks ago when Amy (my sister) was telling me about them.  She had a friend who visited them last year.  With pouring rain, what a perfect tour - underground!  The van arrived a little late due to traffic - around 3:40 - but luckily I was the last person to get picked up.  The tour guide's name was Sophie...decided not to mention that I would remember that since my parent's toy poodle is named Sophie.

The drive to the mine took about 45 minutes. Once we arrived, it was a bit of a chaos.  There were easily hundreds of people - all speaking different languages, part of different tour groups and no guides were particularly effective in controlling the groups.

After about a 10 minute "break", we lined up, were given our headsets, receivers and tickets.  The mine guide started talking and most of us could only understand every few words that she said.  We all complained - the response was classic - "no worries, that's typical".  Hahaha...while perhaps typical, acceptable is another question!

Once it was our turn to finally enter the mine, there was about 30 of us crammed into a small beginning chamber.  We learned the rules of the tour - no touching the salt or walls except in areas where we are told we could (the moisture from our hands would deteriorate the salt and ultimately the safety of the mine - really!?!?  I'm feeling less and less comfortable about going several meters into this mine), no liquids (same reason), and pictures are fine, but you have to buy a permit (10 PLN, so about $3 US)!  The very last comment was the best - there are almost 800 steps on the tour, with 380 steps immediately past the next door - before seeing anything of the mine.  Probably would have been good for everyone to know before even booking the tour!  Only relief is that the 800 steps are all down - we get to ride an elevator back up.

The mine is enormous - we were told that during our 3 hours tour, we would see only about 1% of the mine.  The Wieliczka mine that we're visiting is supposedly the largest mine in the world (I've not confirmed this statement by the guide), but is no longer being mined or expanded.  When it was started in the 1600's, salt was very profitable and in huge demand.  The demand and profitability of salt has greatly changed since then - part of the reason that the mine is not being expanded with further mining...but also because of the city development on top of the mine.

The first hour of the tour is somewhat interesting - seeing the various chambers, a huge underground chapel where everything is carved out of salt, including the crystals in the chandeliers.  But after an hour, each chamber starts to look like the previous one and I bet I can guess that this chamber was also hand dug and took about 50 years.  To say that it became predictable and boring is kind.

The below are all of the underground chapel - all carved in salt:

Pope John Paul II - he visited the mine several times, but never while as Pope:

I have my photo permit sticker displayed proudly:

This was inside the most impressive chamber - it is difficult to get the effect of how tall it is in this picture...many hundreds of feet tall:

Once the tour finished, there was again mass chaos trying to leave the mine.  Huge queue lines since there is only one elevator and the groups are to exit together.  Once our group was cleared to leave, we started walking...and walking...and walking.  After about 20 minutes of walking, the guide finally said that we had about 10 more minutes to get to the elevator.  It was after 7 PM at this point!

Once back on surface level, we were lead back to our starting point to meet up with the van.  Unbelievably this walk was close to 15 minutes.  New suggestion - how about if the van meets us where we exit the mine!

The ride back took much longer than the ride to the mine.  The last Friday of the month, a large number of bicyclists jam all of the major roads in Krakow to demonstrate the number of them and the need for better bike infrastructure.  I get their point, but it was really annoying as we inched back into town.  

Somehow my hotel was the first stop - how did that happen since I was the last pick-up?  Regardless, I'm not questioning.

I stopped in the room quickly and refreshed and then headed out to the restaurant that Marta had recommended.  She said it was the best place in town for traditional Polish food.  She told me that the Old Town area was about a 15 minute walk.  

The route was pretty straightforward and I never got lost.  I had to consult the map a few times to make sure I was still going in the right direction since after 15 minutes, I was still a long way from the restaurant.  The walk took closer to 45 minutes...and I think that I'm a pretty fast walker.  I quickly decided that there certainly would be a taxi in my future tonight.

I finally arrived at the restaurant.  It looked somewhat rustic compared to the places that I had passed...and in 45 minutes, I passed many restaurants.  I had already decided this place better be phenomenal for this effort.

I walked in and asked for a table for one.  Sorry - no open tables.  Ugh!  I noticed a table of two trying to get their check so pointed that out and she suggested that I wait to see if/when they left.  After about 15 minutes, they finally left.

I had time to full review the menu as I waited so as soon as I sat down I was ready to order.  Unfortunately the service staff was not ready for the same.  After about 5 more minutes of waiting at the table, I was able to order.

I got the Polish Plate - a sampler plate of their most traditional dishes.  This included:

- Breaded pork chop (starting at the bottom right in the picture below and going counter-clockwise)

- Potato pancake

- Polish Tradiional Bigos

- Beef Collops

- Baked potato with sour cream

- Blood pudding

- Cabbage Roll

When it was set down I wasn't sure about most of it, but was determined to at least try all of them.  I was surprised how much I enjoyed many of the things on the plate.  I did try all of them and actually finished 4 of the 7 items.

When paying I asked about cabs and they called for one to pick me up - it took less than 4 minutes.  

It was getting late and decided I should head to bed since I had any early morning on Saturday.

Sept 27, 2014:

I got up and ready pretty much as scheduled and went down for breakfast.  Since the tour is from 8:15 AM until about 3 PM, then I wanted to take along some snacks.  With all of the meats and cheeses on the buffet along with bread, then I got enough on my breakfast plates to make 2 small sandwiches.  Great idea I had for packing a few empty ziplock bags.

The van arrived right on time and 8 of us from the Hilton joined the group.  The van was not full today and we didn't have to pick up anyone else.  

Along the 1.5 hour ride to Auschwitz, then they showed a video on the van - "The Liberation of Auschwitz".  The video was about 30-40 minutes and included tons of video that the Russian army had taken during the liberation of Auschwitz.  The pictures in the video were so disturbing.  Before the liberation occurred, the Nazi had started a huge march out of the concentration camps towards the German boarder of all of the inmates that were well enough to walk.  So the video showed the people in the worst conditions.  

We arrived at Auschwitz - it was misty, gray and overcast - almost the perfect weather to set the mood for the somber visit.  There is not much else around Auschwitz, so when we exited the bus we could already see some of the buildings and blocks.  We were merged with another group for an English tour with a wonderful tour guide.  She was Polish and her English was a little difficult to understand at times, but she showed incredible compassion as well as full transparency and straightforwardness.  There were many more visitors there than I expected - easily thousands.

There are actually 3 different complexes with Auschwitz in the name - all within about 10 kilometers of each other.  

- Auschwitz 1 - where we stopped first - was a Polish military base with existing building, blocks, etc.  The Germans took it over when they occupied Poland and started to prepare it to be a concentration camp.  There is one small gas chamber there with incinerators - all of which are still standing and we were able to tour.  Much, if not all, of Auschwitz 1 is still standing with many of the blocks available for viewing.  

- Auschwitz 2 - Birkenau was a camp that Hitler ordered the construction - and we toured this location in the early afternoon.  Many of the Russian POWs were forced to build the camp which is about 30 (yes, thirty) times larger than Auschwitz 1.  This is the camp with huge gas chambers and incinerators and was the site of the major genocide that we associate with the Holocost.  When the Russians were approaching Auschwitz to liberate it, the Nazi began to destroy as much of Auschwitz 2 as possible.  The Nazis burned many documents, destroyed the gas chambers and incinerators, and set fire to the buildings that held many of the belongings they had taken from the Jews and other inmates, all trying to hide evidence of the mass genocide they were conducting there.  The Polish government has dismantled much of the wooden housing structures due to the cost of maintaining them, but left the ruins of the gas chambers and incinerators as well as any brick structures.  

- Auschwitz 3, which was built much closer to a German Chemical Factory where some inmates were forced to work 12-14 hours per day, has been completely dismantled by the Polish government.

We were able to take pictures throughout much of the sites, with the exception of areas of the worst brutality, inside the still standing gas chamber and incinerators in Auschwitz 1 and any areas that showed any parts of human remains.  However, in respect of the millions of people who suffered and died in these locations I am not going to post any of the pictures.

If you are very interested in seeing these pictures, please let me know and I will plan to share them with you in person in order to give appropriate context for each.

Seeing these locations and walking the "Road of Death", it is completely overwhelming that this  atrocity was relatively recent in our international history.

After Auschwitz 2, then we started the ride back to Krakow.  It was going to be about 2:30 when we got back to town, so I decided that I wanted to go to the City Center, not the hotel.  Luckily no one else wanted to go back to the hotel either, so the City Center was the first stop.

By the time we got back to town, the mist had stopped, the clouds had dispersed and the sun was breaking through.  It was very poetic that I had experienced so much melancholy, heartbreak and despair during the morning with gray, misty weather, now I was back in the vibrant, young city just an hour away enjoying the sun and sounds of a main square festival.  Life has been reborn in Poland - the main square of Krakow was as crowded and joyful as any I have seen on my travels.  I think it is a great sign of the resiliency of this country to reflect and honor the past, but to move forward in building their lives, their cities, their country.

There was a major festival going on in the square...who knows if it is every weekend or was special for today, but there were many, many vendors, several stages of singers and dancers, the usual cafes with outdoor tables ringing the square and then many thousands of people.

I meandered among the vendors, stopped and enjoyed several stages of traditional Polish singing and dancing and finally took in the smells of the various food vendors.  I never ate my sandwich snacks and instead had eaten a bag of Peanut M&M's while we drove between Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2...so I was rather hungry.  I decided on a vendor with a bigger line - figured that the locals knew which was the best.  It was country white bread, grilled, then covered with garlic butter, caramelized onions and sliced kielbasa sausage.  It was ridiculously large.  I ate less than half of it...but did move all of the sausage to the side that I ate!

I moved on to the permanent vendors and found a wonderful pair of amber cufflinks.  Evidently Poland is renowned for amber.  How could I pass on a such a fantastic, useable souvenir?

Next I found some postcards and finally a keychain to make into an ornament, so was done with my souvenir shopping.  But then something magical happened...

I passed a sign for a Christmas shop with hand-painted, glass ornaments.  I had to find my way through a few narrow alleys to get to the shop, but it was what I had been looking for my entire trip.  The entire shop looked like Radko had exploded.  I had forgotten that Radko, Joy to the World and various other high-end hand-painted glass ornaments are made in Poland.  This store was all of that, but with no brands to raise the price.  I asked about shipping...we had to communicate very elementary - me with no Polish knowledge and the clerk with rudimentary English knowledge.  She wrote "USA" on a sheet of paper...yes, shipping to the USA.  She wrote a number.  It seemed so low...I wrote "in PLN?"  Yes, of course she said.  Wow, so cheap.  I debated and debated...I wanted my selections to be special and not just another ornament on the tree....so I selected two finials.  The price with shipping for the two finials was less than what I've paid for one in the US.  I also picked two smaller ornaments...and she said - "those free, pick two more."  She gave me those two for free too and indicated that she would ship them in the box with the finials.  I wrote the shipping address, she had to ask confirmation/clarification on a few letters due to how we write certain letters and numbers between the two countries.

After some confusion, I finally understood that I had to pay for shipping in cash, but then could use a credit card for everything else.  

I was almost giddy with my purchases.  Such a fantastic find.

I walked around the square area a bit more, stumbling on a few exciting buildings, but didn't go into any of them.  Seemed that each of them required an entrance fee.

I loved this monument in a city park near the square - like it is also framing nature:

Around 4:30, I found a great table at an outdoor cafe and ordered a café to watch the festival in the square.

My view from the cafe:

Watching the square was wonderful - so much activity, such great people watching.  I guess a common tradition on wedding days is the for the bride, groom and entire wedding party to ride in horse-drawn carriages through the square...and everyone applauds.  There were at least six brides/grooms straight from their wedding that rode through as I sat there.

I was thinking more and more about the ornaments.  I should get more...the finials are such a great deal and shipping was so reasonable.  Then thought, no, I should be happy with what I purchased and let those two finials be a great memento of my trip.  By my second coffee I was convinced that I was going to get more.  By the time I left I was not going to get more.

During my walk to the hotel I had to go back by the turn for the shop.  I decided that if I passed an ATM before I get there, it is a sign that I should get more (I would need more cash to pay the shipping).  Sure enough, I passed an ATM (this is a huge square and I was walking at least a quarter of it, so very unlikely that I wouldn't pass an ATM!...I was giving myself pretty good odds).

The clerk was so happy to see me back.  I immediately went back to the finials.  She said...oh...one more.  She ran in the back and came out with a very special finial..."only one" she said.  It was gorgeous..."oh yes, I want it".  Now to decide on one more...such difficult decisions.  I also picked four smaller ornaments thinking I'd get the same "free" offer.  She wasn't as generous this time - I had to pay for all four, but then she said to pick two more for free.  However, she did give me a discount on shipping...combining it with my previous purchase.

After this, I decided it was time to head back to the hotel before I purchased anything more!

I decided to make the 45 minute walk back...and stopped at various landmarks along the way.  The walk didn't seem as long today and I took a little different route.

Crossing the river on my way back to the hotel:

Following this street line across the river made me laugh several times (it was dividing the bike line from the pedestrian lane)...they may have been having some of the Polish vodkas while painting:

After relaxing at the hotel for a while, I changed clothes to head out to dinner.  

I stopped at the front desk and Marta was working tonight.  She asked about the various tours and I told her both were very informative, but that the Salt Mine was a little too long.  I asked about dinner options for tonight since her suggestion for last night was so good.  She asked a co-worker and they suggested someplace in the Jewish Quarter.  

The street of the restaurant was so small that it wasn't on the map, so they tried to explain the general area.  The walk was about 35 minutes and the Jewish Quarter was very crowded with tons of bars and restaurants that were bustling...it is also Saturday night and the weather is quite nice.  I finally found the restaurant - with only one wrong turn.  When I arrived, there was only one table occupied and they were finishing their coffee.  It was about 9:45.  The restaurant is very small with only about 6 tables.  Finally a worker arrived and she seated me - I had my choice of seats.

There were some Polish items on the menu, but it was mostly Italian with an entire page of fresh-made pastas.  I started with the onion soup with croutons and parmesan cheese (I expected that it would be similar to French Onion soup, but not at all.  It was completely pureed and no beef stock...and no cheese/bread topping).

For the entree I had Pork Sirloin with sides of green gnocchi and grilled vegetables.  I was a little surprised when the entree arrived and the Pork had a cream sauce all over it.  Overall a good dinner, not great.

Since I was the only person in the restaurant and it was clear that the staff wanted to leave, I asked for the bill as soon as she took my plate and I headed out.

I started the walk back to the hotel, debating about a cab.  The weather was still nice, so I stayed on foot, about 30 minutes back.  

Headed to bed not long after getting back to the room.