Recently I went to Krakow, Poland. I wanted to return to Poland since my previous experience was short and might not count as a trip to Poland for some people.
My last “trip” was through Slovakia in the High Tatra mountains. I basically walked across the border sat down, rested for a few minutes and walked back to Slovakia. This was on the highest mountain in Poland, Rysy. I will I mention it in a blog post about the Tatras.
This trip was also short, only two nights, and I know I will be going again.
You would think travel to Poland would be simple, and with a car I imagine it is. If you are going to go by train it’s a bit more complicated. I suggest using ACP Rail to book a ticket. As an international company they specialize in making complicated train bookings easy. As far as I know Polish Railways and Czech Railways are not exactly friends and there are different requirements and regulations for operating trains in Poland and Czech Republic. It could be a matter of purchasing a locomotive that meets both country’s requirements is too expensive, but it is actually that such a locomotive did not exist until very recently (just a few months ago). There is a lot to it, there are different kinds of electric lines in Poland and blah blah blah. The fact is, you can’t take one train from anywhere in the Czech Republic to anywhere in Poland. You must transfer somehow. I transferred to a bus.
I didn’t check Krakow out as much as I would have liked, it’s a very pretty city. The historic center is beautiful.A return trip to see Krakow proper is in order. I spent most of my time in Oswiecim which is where the Auschwitz concentration camp is. This of course wasn’t the happiest visit of the year and I have two completely separate blog posts about it. You can read the first on here.
The Old Town Square or Rynek Glowny and historic center is charming and enormous.
This photo only shows about half of Rynek Glowny. The large building on the left is an old textile marketplace. It bisects the square and now houses tchotchke vendors for the edification of tourists. I walked through it, but nothing really caught my eye. It is well organized, but really just a big hall with booths on either side.
Of course there is a clock tower in the square, as you can see, and there is a pump placed on the spot where a man immolated himself in the 1980s. Evidently Mr. Badylak chained himself to this well before setting himself alight. The wiki link for Badylak is in Polish, no English version exists so it’s off to Google Translate for you. Not every town square has such a place, I think that is a good thing. While researching this post I discovered that Jan Palach immolated himself basically on the steps of the national museum. So Prague has some similar history.
I want to try and keep this post happy, so I dispense with the self-immolation talk. It’s a fun word to use though and one I don’t find myself with much use for in normal conversation. I think now it is out of my system for the foreseeable future.
As you can see, most people use the square for happy things like festivals and shopping and, taking wedding photos. In keeping with the tradition of all European central squares there is a cathedral, or at the very least a church.
This is St. Mary’s Basilica. There were signs posted in front of the church not to enter, which of course every tourist ignored. I hesitantly ignored the signs as well and went inside. Once I saw the reason for the signs I quickly made my exit. They were having confession. There was nothing to separate the penitent from the priest. No confessional, which is always intimidating. In what I briefly saw, the priest was holding his hand in front of his eyes to avoid seeing who the penitent man was. As soon as I saw this I left immediately. We’ll all have to wait until my next trip to see photos of the inside of the basilica.
Behind the basilica there is another tiny square. I think it is in fact called Maly Rynek, at least the street is named that. It means “small market.” To me it was a very beautiful place and in the photo above the light was amazing combined with the cobblestones wet with morning dew this quickly became my favorite part of the city center.
I should also note that the Poles are very religious on the whole, a 180 degree shift from the Czechs, and there were nuns everywhere. In the center you couldn’t swing a rosary without hitting a nun. It was really nice to see such a devout population. I would see later that not every Polish girl wears particularly modest attire to Mass, which took me back a little, but whatever at least they are going, right.
The nun in the photo above was moving so quickly I almost missed her, but with the light and the wet stones I was compelled to photograph her. Had I seen her in time I could have done a better job, but I still really like this frame. So I included it, because it’s my blog that’s why.
There are, of course, other churches in the city and the historic center consists of many small, romantic little streets and alleys. The thing I found most interesting about the city center is that it is surrounded by a wall. Like some sort of old fortification. The fact that much of it is still there and there is now a giant park surrounding the center is very cool.
I honestly don’t know the names of these two churches. They were the first ones I saw as I was walking to the center for the first time and I thought they were beautiful and that the light was wonderful. I enjoyed seeing the two different styles so close together. This mix of architecture is a bit more classy than how it’s done in Sofia.
They also have a castle in Krakow. I didn’t really visit it. All I did was walk up to one of the gates. It was closed, I will check it out during my next trip. It is really close to the city center.
Krakow also has a river, the mighty Vistula. It’s navigable, and happens to be the longest river in the country. I was staying on the other side of the river from the center so I crossed it a few times. The bridge opposite the one I always walked across was lit in a cool way.
The hotel I found was an affordable and comfortable penzion kind of thing I found on Booking.com. I use them for most of my bookings really. I don’t need to stay in the city center and it makes things cheaper for me, but booking.com has great deals in Krakow’s center too.
And now we are at the end. Tune in to part two where I will travel to the Wielicka salt mine. You really don’t want to miss it.
Stay tuned and thanks for reading!
The Wayfaring Castaway 