Poland: Krakow

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Tuesday 6th June

Took the train to Krakow, a 4hr trip in the pouring rain. I really hope it clears up for us. We shared a compartment with 5 other local Poles but no words were spoken. We were hungry so hauled out our loaf of bread and cheese and were watched by 5 pairs hungry eyes!! One of the women hopped off somewhere, but not without politely telling us [in good English], to please enjoy her country, happy travels and she hoped the rain stopped!! I was flabergasted at her friendliness and we hadn't uttered one single word to her. For me a magic moment. Once we arrived at Krakow station we were met by hordes of accommodation touts! Unexpected, as this is the first time we've encounted this so far in Europe. We already had an idea where we wanted to stay but at every turn someone bombarded us with "come stay at the best hostel in Krakow", or "we are the cheapest hostel in town", etc... Eventually we crashed our way through them all and found our way to our chosen place. As it was a cheaper place, it was quite a walk from the main town square. Anyway, they could only take us for 2 nights, not what we wanted but took them anyway. We plan to stay in Krakow at least 6 or 7 days and it's much better not to have to move hostels all the time. This evening we used the free internet to search for an alternative place at which we could stay for the whole week. Found one just around the corner from us, so David rushed down to it and grabbed the available 4 dorm room for us - before someone else grabbed it. Beds are like hens teeth in this town. It's crazy!! So tomorrow we up and go again only using 1 of the nights here [we only paid for 1 so didn't lose out on any money].

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Wed 7th June

Sun is out today, sort of, but the wind is cold. We left early to check into our new hostel. As is usual for so many hostels we've been to, the entrances into them are these dark, dingly and dodgy alleyways - but once inside them - they are spotlessly clean, very comfortable and pretty modern. No time wasted, we dumped our stuff and headed straight out to explore. What a great place Krakow is. There is is so much to see and places to visit here that it's hard to know where to start. So we chose to just wander around and get our bearings. In the centre of the beautiful Old Town Square, the largest medieval square in the whole of Europe, sits the 16th century Cloth Hall, with it's ground floor taken up by a huge souvenir market with really high quality goods. The Town Hall Tower dominates one corner and the St Marys Church another corner. Wander up the cobbled side streets and you find no end of 13th and 14th century city gates, bastions, churches, inns, ale houses and of course the great Wawel Castle. Walking up and down and in and around and then finding a bench in the middle of the square to people-watch, is what makes this city just so appealing, fun and exciting. It's vibey and filled with colour and action. An exhausing day ended with a Polish beer in a street pub. The Polish beers are very strong compared to Czech beers and I personally cannot drink too much. Some really knock your head off!!

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Thursday 8th June

An out of town excursion today, to the Wieliczka Salt Mines about 15km south of the city centre. This place is yet another Unesco World Heritage Site and consists of pits and chambers, made by hand from solid salt, dating back to the 13th century. Everything here is made of salt. There are over 20km of underground passageways at a depth of 135m and the compulsory tour takes you through 3km of them. The entire town of Wieleczka sits on top of these underground labyrinths and apparently every home has access to them, altho' no-one ventures down there. You begin the tour by descending 53 floors of stairs deep into the earth and the temparature decreases with each step - they have a carefully constructed ventilation system down here - to preserve everything. Every single thing is made of solid salt. The walls of the passes, the floors, the ceilings, and all the sculptures have been carved out of salt. Quite an amazing place to see. The most impressive cavern is actually an underground church, where totally everything you see is carved out of the salt blocks to form the alter, the crosses, the figures of Christ, the chandeliers. There's even a salt statue of the late Pope John Paul II. The tour guide continuously invites you to lick the walls!!! as it's really hard to believe that it's all salt. There are also deep underground lakes with - you guessed it - salty water. A visit to this unique salt mine [still in use], is a must on anyones itinerary. It's pretty pricey but worth it. Your ticket also includes an hour long tour of the underground salt museum where you see huge salt crystals, ancient mining machines and equipment and learn a bit more about the life of a salt miner in the early centuries, when everything was done by humans and horses, by gaslight.

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Friday 9th June

Auschwitz and Birkenau. An emotional and reflective day. We hopped on the bus for the 1 and half hour ride out to Oswiecim, the Polish name for the town of Auschwitz. As expected, we arrived in a carpark heaving with tour coaches! This place is free if you walk around, but we decided to pay for an English tour, so that we could get the most out of it. Money very well spent. The group was divided into numerous smaller groups so ti wasn't actually too bad. The first group went to Birkenau first, 3km up the road by bus. Birkenau is in fact the main place where the holocaust death camps are situated, not at Auschwitz itself, which was initally only the holding barracks for the prisoners but later had the gas chambers and was used as an additional death camp. Auschwitz is also where all the heinous experiments on humans took place. It is also where the wall of death is situated - where millions of mainly Jews were shot dead. The entire complex of Auschwitz and Birkenau together is a very morbid reminder of the atrocities that happened here. The now silent and empty remains of the old barracks at Birkenau, the offloading zone of the railway track, the multitude of brick crematorium chimneys, the watch towers and razor sharp barbed wire fences, exudes an eerie atmosphere that demands a respect for the millions who lost their lives here. It's not possible to entirely comprehend the extent of this human death factory. One leaves the place with feelings of shock and helplessness. Auschwitz has displays of thousands upon thousands of personal effects found after the Nazis fled: heaps and heaps of shoes, toothbrushes, combs, spectacles, suitcases, clothing and human hair. The gigantic glass display cabinets which house things makes you shudder. Altho' a visit to these concentrations camps is pretty depressing, it just has to be seen. It puts the horror of the holocaust into perspective because what you see here is only a small fraction of the reality of it all and the unbearable suffering that happened here. We returned to krakow, 'sobered up' a bit and went to watch the opening game of the Soccer World Cup at a local Polish pub. In the 2nd game, Poland was playing so the pub was alive with cheering Poles. Excellent vibe. I came home with a red and white Polish Soccer Flat which will hold some special memories as it was given to me by a Polish chap who insisted that I have it, as we had been excitedly cheering on their team and were willing to have our faces painted in Polish colours!!! A great fun night with the locals.

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Saturday 10th June

A very lazy day doing nothing much except watching England win their soccer match. We had a marathon card game this evening with our hostel roommates and consequently had a very late night. All these new friends have decided to join us when we go to Zakopane in the Polish Tatra mountains on Monday. We will be a great party of 7. Can't wait.

Sunday 11th June

Visited Wawel Castle in the morning. We decided not to into any of the state rooms as every different part was money, money, money To walk around the grounds and courtyards was free, so that's what we did. Still very impressive with loads of views. The Cathedral was free but was so packed with tourists that it was actually unpleasant. A real pity because it's really beautiful inside. To go into the crypts below where all the old Polish kings are buried, you once again pay... Judging by all the tourists we wouldn't have enjoyed going down anyway.