Day 7: April 18-Kraków

Yesterday evening it got a bit chilly; the polar fleece jacket worked just fine. This morning started out raining pretty heavily. I heard it out in the courtyard so I turned off my alarm and slept in another hour.

It was still coming down pretty hard when I finally got up (which was still before 8), so I went to the "Metropolitan" which is a restaurant attached to a nicer but still small hotel just a block over. They are one of the few in the Old Town to serve breakfast before 9:00 from what I can tell, and they came recommended by the Globtroter. It was a buffet breakfast with eggs, sausages, rolls, cold cuts (of course!), cereal, fruit, and these great chocolate-filled croissants. I must have gotten spoiled by Polish prices because I felt the bill was a bit steep, at $8. But it is very filling and high quality...even with not much competition that early.

The rain lightened up to a drizzle, enough that it was OK to walk without an umbrella. The first stop of the day was Wawel (VAH-vel), the castle and historic heart of Poland's royalty. By the time I got there, it had stopped raining, but the crowds had not yet invaded this sight, the most visited in all of Poland.

The cathedral houses a number of remains of kings as well as being one of the holiest sites in the country and the mother church of the Archdiocese of Kraków. It was completely empty when I entered, save for a couple nuns mopping the floors.

By the time I left, tour groups had started to overrun the courtyards and entrances of the Wawel sights. I ducked into the courtyard behind the Cathedral to see if anybody was pressed up against the walls. Apparently Wawel is one of seven sites radiating "chakra" energy, important to the Hindu religion. But nobody had braved the rain this early to get a piece of the action.

Leaving Wawel, I headed into the Jewish district of Kazimierz, just south and east of Wawel. This is one of those things that Rick Steves in particular really talked up -- especially a self-guided walking tour -- but I eventually found no real interest in. The neighborhood was home to many Jews prior to World War II. Only a couple hundred remain today, although the neighborhood otself has undergone some revitalization, partly due to interest sparked by the film Schindler's List, part of which was filmed in Kazimierz.

I ducked into the only synagogue that seemed to be open today, Remu'h, which is also the last active one in the city.

I also went to a small Polish folk museum in the area. Both guidbooks said it was pretty interesting, and it was. There were a number of rooms made up to represent how various homes looked in rural poland over the last couple centuries. The large signs were in Polish and English, and the rest were in Polish only, but it was easy to understand the basic plot of each room.

There were plenty of old ladies working here, but they didn't enforce a particular path; They did, however, turn on and off the lights as you entered and left each room. Why not?

Breakfast still hadn't quite worn off, but I was eager to try some more milk bar food. I went back to Polskie Smaki. Having the ordering process down to a science, I ordered pierogi with meat, potatoes, and peas/carrots.

WOW! The tray weighed several pounds when my number showed up. The pierogi were sprinkled with what tasted like fried pork rinds...I later learned that's pretty much what it was: fatty bacon. The plate had a nice greasy sheen to it as well. They were very, very good. The potatoes and carrots I forced myself to finish, but it was way too much food. Realizing that I hadn't tried any soup, I decided to walk a lot for the rest of the day, and come back later in the evening.


The next stop for the day was Nowa Huta. This was one of several Soviet towns (a suburb, really) built ground-up to showcase socialist ideals. It got only one star in Rick Steve's book and a passing mention in Lonely Planet, but I decided that it would be a good chance to see everyday Kraków away from the tourist stuff.

Tram #4 leaves from in front of the train station and travels eastward toward Nowa Huta, about a half-hour ride (or a little more) away. Along the way you see lots of construction, Soviet-style apartment buildings, factories...but mostly just everyday Poles going about their business. I had grim images in my head, but being about twenty years after liberation from communism....a lot has obviously changed.

The tram makes a stop in Plac Centralny in Nowa Huta (incidentally, if you see the generic-sounding "Plac Centralny" as one of the stops on any tram in Kraków, this is the one it's talking about, so hop on). The square was renamed Plac Centraly Ronalda Reagana for his contributions to bringing about the fall of the Soviet Union.

Things in Nowa Huta are designed big, and were clearly, probably, at one time, quite grim and unexciting. Blocks are very long, streets are very wide, buildings appear monotonous and pretty gray. But I found myself thinking....is this any worse than acres of suburbia? Each block was designed to be self-sufficient, with a courtyard and playground, a store (now lots more stores and shops), and so on. You can walk into any of the courtyards as they are public places. While the idea of being able to plan a giant city to such precision seems kind of silly, it really isn't all that bad...and the major streets radiating from Plac Centralny are well-serviced by trams, and while the blocks feel gigantic, you can still walk to meet your daily needs.

So Nowa Huta was different than I expected, but definitely not a letdown. In fact, what would superficially remind many people of housing projects in the U.S., can actually be livable when occupied by a normal cross-section of society rather than just the poorest of the poor.

After walking around a bit more, I rode the tram back to the city.

There were a few more stops on the shrinking list, including the Collegium Maius (from which Copernicus and Pope John Paul II graduated).

After more watching and listening in the Old Town Square (which, incidentally is dotted by tobacco kiosks: 100% of Poles smoke, seemingly), and a trip to Galeria Krakowska, I went back to Polskie Smacki, this time ordering a soup, Zurek, and pierogi filled with fruit. I was a little apprehensive at first about fruit-filled ravioli, but this was my favorite milk bar meal of them all. The soup was hands down the best soup I've ever had. It is made with 'sour' dough, spices, maybe some onions, and a hard-boiled egg plopped into the middle. The pierogo with fruit was jsut as delicious, filled with small berries, and covered in a sauce that was a bit sweeter.

I spend one more night on the market square, listening to the performers and watching people go by. It started to get a bit chilly again, so I went back to the hotel, satisfied that I had sampled and enjoyed this fascinating city for eat least a few days, and hoping to return.