Krakow, Crakow, “Krakov”!!!!

Our itinerary:

Day 1:

Our first day we spent at Auschwitz, as Aaron mentioned in his blog. He was right about the crowds, the guided tour being run through fast, however I also agree that there were some impactful moments in which I had a couple meltdowns. One I can recall was when we were guided into a room titled “Canada” where we saw thousands and thousands of piles of shoes from those exterminated at the camp. The SS called the piles of clothing and possessions of the deceased Canada because Canada symbolized riches. There was also a room with suitcases. Written on the suitcases suitcases were names, DOBs, hometowns, no doubt written by it’s owner to make sure his was identifiable in the likely chaos. Many of the last names were the last names of friends of mine today, that hit home. There was another room, a big room, with mounds of hair. I witnessed young girls braids and young women’s long hair piled up to the ceiling and stretched out about 15 ft – 20 ft across the room. This hair was sold and made into fabric similar to burlap sack material, and while not much, the SS profited from these sales. I know these were mere possessions, but seeing it brought me the feeling of real ness. Through their possessions I was able to imagine them and their lives.

It was an overwhelming and a mentally complicated sight to see. And still I have problems digesting that this really happened.

We came back to the hostel and went to the main square, off a corner for dinner, also like Aaron mentioned, the food here is amazing! Aaron had some perogis and a polish version of chicken teriyaki and I had a pea soup with “bacon” which is really big pieces of sausage and some duck stew with cabbage, so yum!

Day 2:

The next morning we woke up early to start not one but TWO four hour tours!

The first was about Old Town. Krakow is a very walkable city and jeez did we walk. The Old Town tour was about Krakow history, beginning as a strong merchant/trading town, hence the huge market square.

There is a brilliant medieval history which included understanding that the Old Town part of Krakow was walled as part of the kingdom. Wawel Castle had dungeons, towers, palaces, courtyards, draw bridges, stone walls, gates, and yes, a dragon legend to boot. In fact, later Aaron and I went deep inside the dragons lair which was under the castle. I was giddy with all of the medieval history and legends, so Game of Thrones.

We left the first tour and headed to a recommended restaurant per our guide. It was also amazing. (Aaron wrote about our experience here in his post).

Then headed back to the Old Town to start our Jewish Quarter tour. We started in the Old Town because Polish Jews flourished in this part of the city until a King who was convinced by the Catholic Church to exile them to a part of Kazimierz. Kazimierz now part of Krakow, about a 15 min walk from the castle. Anyway, we saw the quarter in which Jews settled into their new community, and I could be wrong but also seemed to thrive. Many synagogues, marketplaces, businesses, it became the Mecca and home to those Jews in Europe fleeing religious persecution. In fact 1/3 of Krakow’s population was Jewish living in this quarter until WWII. Then we know what happened, Kazimierz was devastated,  destroyed, citizens removed and taken directly to nearby concentration camps, mostly Auschwitz. Some however were relocated across the river, to next door neighborhood, Podgroze, known as the Jewish ghetto. This is the home of the famous Shindler’s factory, which we also visited. There was a haunting memorial of empty chairs in the square that once was the ghetto. These empty chairs represented the exterminated citizens. There is no longer a Jewish population in either neighborhood today.

Today Kazimierz and Podgroze are up and coming Krakow neighborhoods. I likened Kazimierz to Brooklyn. Young, hip adults and students riding bikes, and hanging out in cool restaurants and bars. These Hipster bars of cool kids usually having some sort of schtick, like tables with sewing machines on them, a closet that opens up to get you into the secret cool room, etc. If I were to convince Aaron to move here, we would totally live in Kazimierz. And if Kazimierz is the Williamsburg BK , Podgroze is the up and coming Williamsburg part II. Across the river, they are developing sky rises in the midst on graffitied lofts and broken down buildings

 After the tour we went back home to FaceTime with my folks and get ready

for our pub crawl – Aaron will write a whole post dedicated to the rich nightlife in the city. But let me say this…at night Old Town turns into a Cancun atmosphere. Promoters are on the streets, but nightlife  doesn’t even start till around 11pJust think about an old Polish capital filled to the brim of cafes, bars and clubs, mix in 125,000 students and splash in some expats and some Euro tourists, you get the explosive cocktail of Krakow. Most every bar feels special as underneath a facade of ancient architecture lies countless cave/dens of people dancing and drinking. It is really too hard to explain.

Day 3:

Day three is pretty much our last day. We had some errands to run, some mugs to pick up and mail, get our bus tickets to Zakopane. We started late, but we had a long to do list. We went to the museum under the square, took our jumping pictures at the castle, went to the Jewish quarter to go to the museum and see another synagogue. Both were closed but not a waste of time as we ate at a fabulous Jewish restaurant, Ariel. While the menu was traditional Jewish food, it seemed to me that they gourmet’d it up. Aaron had the tastiest potato pancakes  I’ve ever had and a Jewish dumpling and I had some amazing goat cheese perogis. In nearby restaurants there were singers and musicians, it looked like a band was setting up in Ariel too, but we had to leave for our big night out, our last night out, so we left, stopped into a hipster bar in the quarter for a cheesecake shot, recommended to us by our tour guide. However, when we asked for them and they noticed us Americans, we were given some real Brooklyn attitude. Then off to our new hostel, in the Jewish quarter, then to a long, fun night out!

Day 4:

On last-ish day we were told about a huge party that was going to go down in the square by the students. The reason why our nightlife had been light was the students were studying for exams. However, on Friday it was the end of the school year and the students were ready to party. It happens once a year, the square is full of kids in crazy and quite creative costumes and everyone has been drinking residually since the night before or the early morning. They were daytime drinking, wasted, had amazing costumes – mostly group costumes and it was about 80 degrees. Like I said, I could really live here.

We headed out of the chaos of partying at 2pm for about 2.5 hours south to the forestry/serene town, Zakopane, Poland. It’s been the opposite landscape of our old cities and we are loving being surrounded by nature and peacefulness.

Looking back, however, I have regrets on Krakow. Originally we were only to stay 2 nights/3 days and pushed it to 3 nights/4 days. But still I wish we had more time. The city is so diverse which is what makes it special but too, there is so much to do/see. Because we had so much to see, we observed city culture vs living it. At one point I raised my hands and said, “no more tours!” I wanted to soak in the culture vs live it. I could have spent another week, month, there.

Here are my thoughts/notes:

Colorful/diverse city full of young students, families, nuns and monks, musicians and artists all cohabitation within the park/the Planty. The Planty rings the old town, where the13th century protective walls and moat used to be.

Rooftop bars everywhere

Lots of college food: kebabs are every other store nestled between bars and Klubs – yes Klubs with a K.