Krakow, Poland

Taking the train from Olomouc to Krakow was a bit of an adventure. It involved changing trains in a city whose name I have forgotten. My ticket indicated that I had 5 minutes between arrival and departure, and I had no idea if I would be able to make it from train to train in time. Boarding the train in Olomouc, I took what I thought was an appropriate seat, but when the conductor checked my ticket, I was directed to go to another car. I found a compartment with only two other women in it, so I let myself in, and exchanged introductions with Suzanne and her mother Elizabeth, who were both from Switzerland. They were taking a short holiday together in celebration of Elizabeth’s 80th birthday. They had boarded the train in Prague and were also on their way to Krakow. We had lots to talk about, and shared easy conversation about travelling and family and such. Turns out Suzanne had been to Canada with her husband a two children a couple of times, and was hoping for another trip there. We all were ready for some fast action when we got off the train in Katowice (I think that’s the name of the city where we changed trains…).

It was bitterly cold there, and the grim, unpleasant platform was wide open to the harsh winds. We tried in vain to figure out which platform we need to switch to in order to get the train to Krakow, so I asked one of the station employees, who just completely waved me off. There were some other non-Polish speakers (English speakers, actually) who were also as befuddled as we were. Fortunately, after changing platforms at least twice (which involved a lot of stairs with awkward luggage, and a tiny, shivering 80 year old) a local man noticed our confusion, and told us that the train was 20 minutes late, and we were on the correct platform. But someone else said “no” we need to be on the other platform. Arrgh!!! It was damn cold and nobody seemed to know what was what. Well, anyway there was another train scheduled about an hour or so later, so we felt better knowing that.

Good thing that there was another train scheduled, because the first train never did show up! We were very glad to get on the rickety old rust bucket, and get out of the cold. After about a 20 minute delay, we finally rattled out of the station, and I do mean “rattled”. The driver had a really heavy foot, and he would actually come to a jerking stop at stations along the way. Then it would be pedal to the metal, and honestly, we wondered if the train would jump the tracks. Poland’s rail system needs some upgrading, I do believe. A very funny thing happened when a lady was walking through our car into the next car. When she went to close the door behind her, she threw a lot of weight into it, and managed to knock it off its sliding mechanism. It was hilariously funny to see, because she glared at me and scowled, and then carried on as if it was a regular occurrence. When the conductor was making her way through the cars she got to the dislodged door, and of course it wouldn’t budge. But she just manhandled it until she managed to set it right. All in a days work on the Polish Rail system. About a half hour later, someone else dislodged it again, but failed to right it. He wasn’t quite as burly as the conductor… The visit on board with Suzanne and her mom was super nice, and made the trip go quickly and pleasantly, despite our concerns of a horrible train wreck. We said our goodbyes at the station and I set off to find my hostel, not far away.

It was a bit expensive for a hostel, but “Tom and Greg’s” was very well run, with excellent staff, and it included both breakfast and supper. It is situated within easy walking distance of the old centre, and also with in walking distance of the very fine castle (on the hill, natch) and the old Jewish quarter of Kazimiertz.

I did a lot of walking in Krakow. It just seemed to be too much hassle to try to figure out the buses. There are a lot of nice coffee shops and cafes to stop in to warm up. The first day I managed to find myself in Kazimiertz and I visited a Jewish museum, and walked many of the interesting streets there. I was just thinking that it was time to warm up somewhere, when I heard a knocking on the window of the café across the street - it was Suzanne and her mother! How nice to see them again and have a hot drink together.

A visit to the castle is a must in Krakow. I toured the royal apartments, which have many magnificent tapestries from Brussels, specifically made to order for the castle by one of the kings, ‘way back in the day. He ordered 360 in total - almost one for every day of the year! The castle had been neglected and pillaged during the years of communism, and so many of the original furnishing and art work were long gone, but generous donations have been received from Polish citizens to the castle museum, which were representative of the missing treasures.

I did the tour to Auschwitz and Birkenau as well. This is not a fun outing, but an important one. They are very sobering sites and the facts were still shocking, even though I felt I was reasonably well informed about Nazi extermination camps and genocide. The coldness of the day served to put a finer point on the horror of it all.

On a somewhat cheerier note, I also visited the salt mine in nearby Wieliczka. Salt has been taken out of this mine since the 13th century, and there are more than 350 kilometres of tunnels below the surface. It’s pretty interesting and just a bit cheesy too, but it was a fun outing. There is no longer salt being mined, since 1996 or so, but there are more than a million tourists like me who take the tour to see the huge caverns and salt sculptures deep below the surface. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieliczka_Salt_Mine Interestingly, I chatted with an East Indian young man, who was also on the tour. He had recently completed his masters degree in pharmacy in London, England. We ended up on the same transit bus back to Krakow and so got to chatting about our experiences there. When I told him that I had been to Auschwitz the day before, he had no idea what I was talking about, but thought that he had heard of the place. Hmm.

Krakow seems to be one of the cities which attracts weekend travellers from U.K. thanks to Ryan Air and their super cheap flights. There was a group of such visitors in my hostel, and it was clear from the start that the sole purpose of their trip was to get completely polluted every night, and then spend the next day talking about it. In fact, they got so hammered that one of them was arrested and they missed their flight back to London. Apparently, this is far from an isolated incident. It’s actually cheaper to fly to Krakow (or other eastern European city) and drink yourself into oblivion, than it is to stay home and do it! It used to be just British soccer hooligans causing disturbances, but now it’s British Ryan Air hooligans as well. Very bad form.

The main square in Krakow is very lovely and large, with an abundance or shops selling fabulous jewellery. Lots of amber and garnets, as well as many other precious and semi-precious stones in gorgeous settings. Try as I might though, I just couldn’t find that one special piece to compliment my ball gown…

I was very lucky indeed, to catch a concert nearby where I was staying. It was a concert performance of the opera Griselda by Vivaldi, presented by Crakoviensis made up of a small string orchestra with period instruments, two mezzo sopranos, two sopranos, one counter tenor and a tenor. It was absolutely glorious, and the voices were superb, except for one of the sopranos, who was basically in over her head. But the others were highly skilled and executed their difficult and demanding parts with clarity, precision and beautiful artistry. I was still vibrating the next day! Ten euros.

After a few days in Krakow, I was heading to the airport to catch an EasyJet flight to Paris, where I would spend one week with niece Anne-Catherine, her three sons, Roman, Thomas, and Paul, and her husband Eric. Lucky me!