A Winter in Europe

The last couple of weeks of our trip got kind of crazy and I (obviously) didn’t update very much, but we’re back in the states now! We had a really wonderful time, especially in Helsinki where we spent six days with our friends Brenda and Sharron who just opened up an amazing coffee shop there! I’ve posted all of the albums with captions to get you caught up on our adventures and I will post more detailed descriptions soon. Until then…

Krakow was such a pleasant surprise. When planning our trip, we added Krakow in the later stages after discovering that train travel to and from Greece would be really difficult, but we always had a good feeling about it. Then when we were in Paris and realized that our (super dumb) rail passes didn’t cover Poland, we almost nixed it in favor of Bratislava which was covered by our (really lame) rail passes. But in the end, we decided to fork over the dough and take the eight hour day trip from Prague to Krakow, transferring in Katowice, Poland to an extremely regional and very low-budget train that gave a sense of foreboding as a vehicle of entry to the city. All of the waiting and indecision absolutely paid off, however. Not only is Krakow an extremely beautiful city— a grand mix of art deco apartment buildings, gothic churches, communist strongholds, and modern malls, but it’s also filled with delicious food for extremely reasonable prices and the greatest, richest history anyone could ask for. In short, we fell in love with this city and (only slightly jokingly) discussed staying there until our flight to Helsinki next week. 

So, without further ado, here are the things I love about Krakow:

For starters, I love Krakow because you can get an amazing and well decorated room for the same price as a gross and over crowded dorm room in many other parts of Europe. We stayed at the decadent Hostel Deco, which is more of a hotel than a hostel (if you don’t count the late night party-ers parading in around dawn).

In Krakow, you can stumble upon historical moments like this ceremony we found at the foot of the castle.

The mascot of Krakow is this iconic dragon, “Smok” in Polish. Legend has it that the founding King of Krakow defeated Smok in battle, protecting the townspeople from him eating their young maidens. The dragon breathes fire every five minutes or when someone texts the word “smok” to a designated number.

MMMMM, Krakow is home to cupcake corner, an indulgent little cupcake shop with monthly and daily specialties (we went four times during our week in Krakow).

There are great (and cheap) live jazz bars with comfortable seating and good beer.

Krakow is also home to the (possibly unique) Argentinian/Polish fusion restaurant we went to. It was really yummy; I had pork and mushroom skewers with mashed potatoes.

Here is Krakow’s lovely castle cathedral, which also played host to a young Pope John Paul II, former bishop of Krakow. On quite a different note, the Krakow castle was also the home of many Nazis during World War II. After their takeover of Poland, they used  the former royal grounds and other famous buildings as their headquarters, outside Auschwitz.

On our walk into town each day, we passed by a shop entirely devoted to bubbles. 

Krakow is home to Oskar Schindler’s factory, the savior of more than 1,000 Polish Jews during World War II, as depicted in Schindler’s List. The old factory is now a museum which illustrates the story of Nazi occupied Krakow and the trials of the Jews during that time. The museum was fascinating and a wonderful companion to our education of this region’s history, in addition to the Auschwitz I and II death camps. It’s important to remember, however, and probably the most significant lesson I learned, that while Schindler’s story and other stories of triumph we know from this time are lovely, they are the stark minority. Our tour guide at Auschwitz told us that more than 90% of the people brought to Auschwitz died within the first few months. Of the hundreds of escape attempts from the camp, only a few were successful. 

In the Schindler’s Factory museum, we learned a little about the resistance effort. The Nazis completely converted Krakow, making it a German not Jewish town. They removed historical monuments, changed the names of streets, and even changed the postage stamps. These stamps are examples of the ones used by the underground resistance movement.

Across the river, we’re at one of the oldest Universities in Poland, where studied Copernicus and Pope John Paul II. During the occupation, the Nazis tried to change the University, compelling the professors to teach Nazi propaganda. Most professors refused and were murdered. After this, the remaining teachers in Krakow went underground, meeting with small groups of students in apartments to continue their education. This is how JPII began learning to become a priest, in secret during the occupation. 

Moving on from the Nazis, Krakow is beautiful at dusk.

And you can escape the monotony of hostel cornflakes with yummy (and affordable) breakfast at the Camelot Cafe. 

The Poles LOVE Chuck Norris (as evidenced by the bank ad).

There are lovely old walls surrounding the city. The old downtown is an oval-shape and it is surrounded by the remaining walls and a huge park loop, called the Planty.

The Old Town Square, magically lit up and adorned with horse drawn carriages, is one of the largest (maybe the largest) in Europe.

And of course, we’ll finish with a last cupcake.