Krakow, Poland

I took a small piece of luggage with me to work in Hannover on May 23, excited to get out and head to Krakow, Poland. After a somewhat short day of work, my supervisor drove me to a nearby Bahn stop, and I took a Straβenbahn to the Hannover Hauptbahnhof. The timing was perfect, and as soon as I stepped into the train station, I bumped into Jenelle, who had arrived in Germany only minutes before.

Since we still had a few hours before our train to Poland arrived, we left our luggage in the lockers at the train station and headed out to wander the city. It was nice to see so much of Hannover, as I have been to the city dozens of times, but have never really done any exploring. There were a lot more interesting sites than I had imagined. We stopped into a couple of bookstores, where I bought the book Finding Nemo in German, and we even got to see some fish in one of the small rivers.

We headed back to the train station in time to grab a quick sandwich for supper, grab our bags, and make it to our train. Once we boarded the train, we headed towards our seats, which were actually beds in a sleeping cart. I had never been in a sleeping cart before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I had even brought my laptop along, hoping to work on my big paper. Unfortunately, the compartment was very small, and all six beds were taken. So, there was little room to move, let alone work. That made the decision easy for me, and I went straight to sleep.

The train ride was very long, lasting over 13 hours, since we had to drive all the way through Warsaw to get to Krakow. But, it went by rather quickly sleeping through it all. In the morning, the conductor woke us up when we were within 20 minutes of Krakow, so that we could prepare our luggage.

We arrived at the main train station in Krakow relatively early, and got directions from a booth for our hostel, Mama’s Hostel. It was only a short walk from the station, and we made our way through the Old Town Market Square. When we arrived at the hostel, we checked in, got our keys to our lockers, and set aside our luggage. Everyone was still sleeping in our room, so after exchanging some Euros for Zloty, we headed out to see the city. Finally, I had found an inexpensive currency. After using Euros all year, the Zloty was greatly welcomed. I exchanged 150.00 euros for over 455.63 Zloty….awesome! I already liked the city!

On the way out, we also grabbed a map of Krakow, which also displayed the pronunciation of some typical Polish words and phrases. Some words were helpful, such as the number 1 (Yeah-den) and “hi” (Chess). Others, we hoped, were not so helpful, such as “Please may I fondle your buttocks?” (Pro-Shem Tch-mog oun Pog wad-itch tvoy Me-yen-key toh-veh-cheque?).

As we began our exploring, we first walked through the Old Town Main Market Square more thoroughly. The Market Square, the largest medieval square in Europe, was absolutely beautiful. It was full of people, as well as market tents and booths, selling everything from flowers to freshly baked bread, to souvenirs.

In the center of the Market Square, three main buildings stood out among everything else. The largest, Krakow’s Sukiennice or Cloth Hall, was in the direct center of everything. Once a center for international trade and barter, it was absolutely packed with tourists looking through its numerous stalls for souvenirs.

Directly in front of the Cloth Hall stood a statue of a strange giant head, as well as a large monument of the national poet, Adamowi Mickiewiczowi, who was considered one of the greatest Polish poets of the 19th century. Unfortunately, this was not the original statue, as it had been destroyed by Nazi forces in 1940.

The tallest building, located behind the Cloth Hall, was the Town Hall Tower. This tower was very unique, as it was easily seen that it was slightly leaning. After a bad storm, the 70m tower, which once held a medieval prison and torture chamber, tilted 55cm.

On the other side of the Cloth House, St. Mary’s Basilica stood tall. If the Basilica was not already impressive from the outside, the inside was even more amazing. As like every other building in Krakow, St. Mary’s had a story as well. Evidently, in the 13th century, the Mongols began an attack on the city of Krakow. A trumpeter on one of the towers of St. Mary’s Basilica began to sound the alarm, but he was quickly shot in the throat. In order to commemorate the event, a trumpet is played from the tallest tower of St. Mary’s on every hour. The trumpet suddenly stops in mid-tune.

Also tucked away to the side of the square was the Church of St. Wojciech, or St. Adalbert's Church.

Next, we passed through St. Mary’s Square, and headed towards the Vistula River. Along the way, we stopped at Wawel Cathedral on Wawel Hill. The famous burial site for Polish monarchs had two large domes around its entryway. The gold dome on the right covered Sigismund’s Chapel, while the green dome on the left covered the Vasa Dynasty Chapel.

Continuing our way up the hill, we passed through the gate to Wawel Castle.

Near the top of the hill, we took a small winding staircase down into Smok’s Cave. As the legend goes, Smok Wawelski was known as the Dragon of Wawel Hill. Smok caused fear and destruction in the city each and every day, by eating civilians, livestock, and especially tasty children. In an effort to stop this destruction, King Krakus, the founder of the city, offered his daughter’s hand in marriage to anyone who could kill the dragon. Knight after knight fell to Smok, before a poor cobbler’s apprentice could outsmart them all. He stuffed a lamb with sulfur, sewed its stomach back up, and placed it in front of Smok’s cave. When the dragon woke up and devoured the lamb, he soon became very thirsty. He drank half of the Vistula River before swelling up and exploding. The poor boy, Skuba Dratewka, married the king’s daughter as he was promised, and the city was named after the king.

Directly outside the cave stood a large statue of Smok. While we did not see it happen, it evidently really shoots fire out of its mouth every five minutes.

Finally, as we walked further towards the river, we could look back and see Wawel Castle itself, set high atop the hill.

As we neared the Vistula, we turned and began to walk towards the Jewish section of Krakow. There, we saw the Old Synagogue and the High Synagogue, before stopping for a small lunch. Nearby, we also stopped at a small flea market, which was selling all kinds of old knick-knacks.

As we continued our way back towards our hostel, we stopped as a small park for a while to play Frisbee. From there, on the remaining walk back, we passed the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre, a portion of Jagiellonian University, Corpus Christi Church, Peter and Paul’s Church, the Franciscan Church, and St. Andrew’s Church.

We even passed by a fishing shop, but unfortunately it had just closed for the day.

Once we arrived at our hostel, we grabbed sweatshirts and headed back to the Market Square to buy a few souvenirs. The square was absolutely packed, and we soon learned that there would soon be a speed walking competition, followed by a short concert. We stayed a few minutes into the race, but it was definitely not the most thrilling spectacle. So, we headed off to find some Polish food for supper.

Along the way to the recommended U Babci Maliny restaurant, we passed by St. Florian’s Gate and the Barbican of Krakow. We found the restaurant no problem, and ordered a dinner of delicious mixed pierogi, which came served on a bread plate. We also tried our first Polish beer, Tyskie, which I also enjoyed.

After dinner, we headed back down towards the Vistula River, passing by the monument of Dzok the Dog. We went straight down to the bank of the river, and sat down for a while on a docked boat, where we ordered a second great type of Polish beer, Zywiec.

After enjoying the view of the river, as well as the beer, we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep. I headed 13 hours back to Braunschweig the following morning, while Jenelle met up with some friends in Berlin.

Krakow turned out to be yet another great trip, and was well worth the ride!