How was Krakow? Hot.

Hi friends and family! We want you to know that we love you and miss you and think about you a lot. We have found it difficult to make the time and find the energy to write these first couple blog posts on our foreign travels just due to getting used to the rhythm of traveling. But we are adjusting and are excited to share our first couple weeks with you!

We flew into Krakow, Poland to start our tour of central/eastern Europe and who-knows-where-else and immediately got two small shocks upon arriving: 1) the hottest, most humid environment we felt we’d ever been in. Seriously, Krakow in August seemed to put Raleigh, NC to shame. I’m not sure we brought the right clothes for this…. and 2) We walked off the plane onto the tarmac, through the airport, and out to the cab stand. That’s it. There was no immigration check of any kind. We felt Polish already! (I learned later that one is supposed to get a stamp on one’s passport to legally stay in the country, but that many places do not have the funds to staff immigration officials, and so there is nothing at the airport.)

  

 
We didn’t let the heat stop us from exploring, but it did slow us down and made mandatory the drinking of decent quantities of beer as that was one of only a few things we could get cold (along with ice cream, and every once in awhile, soda… oh yes, and iced coffee for Brian once he figured out how to ask for it). There was no air conditioning, and by day 6 we fled to the mountains to embrace some cooler weather. But before we fled, we had a wonderful time exploring the city and a few surrounding must-see sites. I’ve described several below for those interested in more specifics.

The real adventure, of course, comes simply from being in a foreign country, navigating foreign customs, transportation systems, and language. Luckily, Krakow is quite the sophisticated city, and tourists and English are common enough that we could challenge ourselves without feeling completely lost most of the time. Additionally, we found the Polish most welcoming and friendly. And most were very patient and willing to try to communicate with us in a mixture of English and Polish as we attempted complicated pronunciations of simple phrases. (I think years from now, when I no longer remember any Polish words at all, I’ll still be able to ask “Do you carry peanut butter?” in any Polish grocery store, so often did we ask that question.)

Among the things to do and see in Krakow, Poland, we hit a few major sites in between walks around the city, meals, and beers… though really, we also count meals and beers among the “things to do”.

In fact, let’s just start there.

 

 Krakow boasts many different types of food (our first meal was actually a pasta carbonara), but we were interested in Polish delights and tried many of those. We started with the super touristy but truly awesome Pod Wawelem where we feasted on cold soup (chlodnik) a platter of meats and pickled cabbage and sipped delicious beer. We also tried a couple of flavored vodkas, and wow, do they know how to make vodka delicious. We then ended up having way too much vodka as this place brings you a free sample of the cherry vodka at the end of your meal. Oops! We’d already had two shots. What a fun afternoon!… we think, we don’t really remember.

 

 Pierogis, little dumplings filled with deliciousness, were also a must try. We went to Zapiecek, recommended by both a host at our hostel and Yelp, and we were not disappointed. They really put Mrs. T’s to shame. And we didn’t realize that pierogis seem to be a common dish all over eastern and northern Europe as you can get them filled with many different things native to different countries. We had a sample plate of the traditional fillings: a few with pork, a few with cabbage and mushroom, and a few with potatoes and cheese. As badly as you might be craving veggies if living on a Polish diet, skip the cabbage and mushroom and double up on the meat and cheese. Delicious! And they have a sampling of sweet, fruit-filled pierogies… also tasty, but we liked the savory ones better.

Zapiekanki is a Krakow street food favorite, and the Platy Nowe is the place to get it: a circular building in the middle of the Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, that houses about 10 different zapiekanki stands. Zapiekanki is a large slab of bread (think of a loaf of garlic bread sliced lengthwise) topped with cheese, canned mushrooms, and a myriad of other toppings and sauces depending on what you order. It’s like street pizza that is nothing like pizza, sounds kind of gross, and tastes delicious…. especially after a couple beers, but even without.

 

Bar Mleczny (Milk Bars) are cheap, cafeteria-like restaurants serving tasty, traditional Polish food. They’ve changed over the years, but were (are?) subsidized by the government to provide workers a cheap place to eat during the day. We experimented with our Polish at one a little further off the tourist path and tried borsch (barszcz), potato dumplings (kopitka), and our favorite, pancakes with spinach (nalesniki z spinakiem). Seriously, we could have eaten nothing but the pancakes (which are really filled crepes) for every meal (okay, alongside a kielbasa at least).

 

 And finally, kielbasa. You can’t expect us to leave Poland without at least trying a good kielbasa. Of course, if we’d visited this place earlier in our stay, we might have gone back every night. Recommended again at the hostel was Kielbasa Guys, a kielbasa food truck located near a crazy flea market in a less touristy part of town. These guys roll up around 8pm, light the fire, and rotate kielbasa ’til 3am. And it was spectacular… crispy outside with a juicy flavorful center that leaves you both full and yet desperately wanting more kielbasa.

And now for a few tourist destinations well worth the time and effort…

The Mound: Two miles west of the city center lies Kosciuszko’s Mound, created to commemorate the Polish leader, Kosciuszko, who gained military experience in the American Revolution before becoming a military leader in Poland.  The fortress around the mound is now a museum dedicated to some of Krakow’s military history as well as Kosciuszko’s life. The mound is literally a small hill with a path to the top that one can climb to get panoramic views of the city. Despite the crazy heat and humidity, we were happy to make this our first activity in the city to get a bird’s eye view of Krakow and learn a bit of its history.

 

 
Free Walking Tour of Old City Krakow: This was a really fun tour that led us around some of the interesting sites of Old City and regaled us with entertaining stories and facts from across the centuries. We learned about the various architecture of the area, about Pope John Paul II’s (or JP2 as we were told on one tour) presence as a student and later visits as a cardinal, about the university, the churches, and Wawel Castle. And yes, the tour was free (though tips are encouraged), and the tour guide was quite entertaining. Our tour guide even recommended a place to eat lunch when we told him we wanted to try a milk bar. He asked if we wanted to “try a milk bar” or go more “authentic.” We opted for more authentic and were not disappointed.

 

 Wawel Castle: This is the place to see in Krakow. The castle has been around essentially since the beginning of Polish time, and the architecture of the various buildings, towers, and grounds is a testament to the many pieces of Polish history. We didn’t take any official tours, but we did get to see the incredibly beautiful cathedral on the grounds and were lucky enough to be there while the president (yes, of Poland) was also visiting. We waited awhile in the crowd for him to emerge but had no luck and eventually left.

 

 Wieliczka Salt Mines: The mines are a 40 minute bus (or train) ride southeast of the city but well worth the trip. The mine was started in the 13th century, but 19th century miners passed time carving magnificent sculptures in the salt while they worked. The mine is a complex maze of corridors and caverns and original scaffolding remains in many places. The tour is fascinating, and the piece de resistance is an enormous cavern into which was carved an entire cathedral that still holds weekly mass to this day. A sculpture of JP2 is there, as well as a salt relief of “The Last Supper”. Particularly entertaining on our trip was a couple getting married in a small side chapel. They had been taking pictures with the photographer all along the route (which largely resembles a Disneyland ride through a mine) and at the end of our tour we passed by a small side chapel while they were exchanging vows.

 

 Auschwitz-Birkenau: Surreal in so many ways. Preserved (and in certain areas reconstructed) in such good condition we struggled between the reality of where we were and the feeling that we were on a movie set. It became almost more difficult for us to believe the atrocities that occurred here, because seeing the actual concentration camp – walking the same grounds as so many holocaust victims, seeing their living conditions and judgment chambers, and standing in the gas chamber and crematorium – made it so much more difficult to believe any person or group of people could so easily and so methodically exterminate entire ethnic groups. Of course we do believe it, I am not saying that we don’t… only that the human soul, when confronted with the reality of the space, cannot hold that much suffering at once. And thus, rather than crumble immediately, we spend the day staggering around in shock and somewhat unable to take in all that we see.

The tour was ~3.5 hours, and our tour guide was very good at emphasizing the magnitude of the atrocities that occurred. Additionally, there are blocks currently memorializing the victims from each country. These we found worth exploring after our tour and were very well done.

All in all, this visit made for a very humbling last day in Krakow, ending a great first week of learning, exploring, and sweating… Next post we’ll share our crazy mountain experience. Even the PCT couldn’t prepare us for it.