Stoogin' in Kraków
Written: May 06 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Remarkable old city, great "base" for day trips elsewhere in Poland.
Cons: The pollution, cold winters, sludge.
The Bottom Line: Experience the atmosphere, wonderful city to visit.
|
|
|
| jarno_m_l's Full Review: Kraków |
It was a dark and stormy night... well, not that stormy really, but it was dark enough to make up for the lack of storminess. Twenty six weary Finns plus luggage were drudging through the snow on the streets of Kraków. The snow had melted into nasty sludge despite the especially harsh winter conditions, with the temperatures falling below -20°C. The culprit to this undesirable sludginess was the evil practice of salting streets, which ensures that pedestrians will always have wet feet and ugly white salt streaks on their boots.
One of those weary 26 was me, this being my first trip with the University travel club. We had done all sorts of odd jobs throughout the year to earn some money for the purpose of getting to celebrate New Years (I think it was 1997) somewhere.... else. The "else" had, by vote, turned out to be Kraków in Poland, and I must admit to having some reservations about the trip - I had somewhat of a prejudice against the ex-"east block" countries (which was especially inexcusable as I had never been in one), and didn't have very high expectations to start out with. Little did I know that this would turn out one of the most memorable trips I've ever had.
Those weary Finns were trudging towards their hostel which was located right at the edge of the beautiful "old city" in Kraków. Their weariness was due to the fact that they had travelled a long way, starting out from Helsinki by boat to Tallin, and from there by train through the Baltic countries across the Polish border, into Varsow changing trains again to reach their final destination, Kraków. It was a trip that lasted more than 30 hours. Being students, we were naturally obligated to be fun and wacky, which is why we didn't get a lot of sleep - instead we put the bed sheets on the train to better use, holding a cross-Baltic Toga party. Wearing only white sheets we got plenty of weird looks from the border control guys...
We were also ravenously hungry by the time we arrived, having had very little solid nourishment on the train trips, so after dropping off our luggage we set off to find some nice restaurant, preferably get a taste of the local flavour. So, dressed like Eskimos and still feeling cold, we trudged through some more sludge towards the old city, only to discover that by 9 p.m., most of the restaurants were closing, and no longer accepting customers. We also found that in Kraków, you could find all sorts of establishments serving food from all over the world - except for Polish food, of course.
While on our way, our group of 26 gained two more Finns, two lost sheep that we had already been a bit worried about. We needn't have been, really. Let me tell you about these two guys.... They were the sorts of people that always got into the dumbest sorts of self-inflicted predicaments, and simply counted on dumb luck to get them through...
Curiously, dumb luck always came through: they were the favourite children of Madame Fortuna, the very embodiment of dumb luck. For the purpose of hiding their identity (lest I jinx them), I'll just call them Larry and Moe. (By sheer odd luck, I had already bumped into Larry about a year before - of all places, in New York, where we ended up walking through Soho in the middle of the night dressed in fancy suits... something like that is bound to happen to you if you hang around Larry - but that's another dumb-luck-predicament story.)
You see, soon after we had crossed the border to Poland, the train had pulled over to a side-track to wait to allow another train coming in the opposite direction to pass - there was only one track for both directions, so these stops were inevitable. Alas, while the train stood on the side track, in the middle of Polish nowhere, Larry and Moe spotted what looked like a lonely pub near the track. You guessed right.... Feeling a bit thirsty, they put their coats on, and headed off to the pub for a beer.
About twenty minutes passed, and our train was ready to move on again - Larry and Moe were left sipping beer in the pub in the middle of nowhere, their luggage with us. Furthermore, to complete the self-inflicted jam, neither of them actually knew the name or the address of our hostel in Kraków, nor did they have mobile phones, or any way of contacting us.
As we met up with them again, by chance, we heard that when they had finally come out of the pub, there was another train stopped on the side track. They had jumped on, and by sheer luck, this train was also headed for Varsow. In Varsow they had bought new tickets to Kraków, and then simply counted bumping into us while wondering the streets. Which they did. And, as Moe remarked, they didn't even need to carry their own luggage... Grrr...
While prowling for a restaurant, someone noticed that.... there was a McDonald's open. Fortunately my insistence that I'd rather starve than to go all the way to Poland only to have my first meal at McDonalds met with enough approval to keep us searching...
Eventually, we did find a non-McDonalds place to eat that was willing to cater for such a large group at such a late hour. It was a Scottish restaurant at one side of the central plaza in the old city, a place where the waiters wore kilts but spoke very little English. Still, the food was quite delicious.
About communication, we found that the best language, besides Polish, to get by with in Kraków is pantomime. Most people don't speak English or any other language for that matter, though we did find that curiously, French was perhaps the best bet.
Except if you are Larry of course. Regular laws of probability don't work for Larry, you see - he was looking for some paper handkerchiefs one day during the trip, so, without so much as blinking an eye, he said to a kiosk merchant in plain Finnish "Nenäliinoja, kiitos". We looked by in astonishment as, without any further explanation or pantomime, he got exactly what he wanted. Typical of Larry, he didn't even look surprised himself - as if he had expected to be understood! When asked about it, he told us that "I've found that whenever people don't understand any international languages, simply speak in Finish. That way, at least you'll sound natural." I guess that makes sense... sort of... No. No it doesn't, darned!
Ok, ok, enough about the stooges, what about Kraków?
The old part of the city is remarkable - it survived the second world war unscathed, and the buildings bestow almost a medieval air to the city, even the cars and the single McDonalds outlet fail to spoil the atmosphere. The old city is the most beautiful old city I've seen, perhaps apart from the one in Prague, and its most definitely the most "authentic" feeling.
You'll find plenty of nice restaurants and atmospheric, old cellar pubs to spend your evenings at, and the prices (at least at the time of our trip) were low, making our student travel budgets quite adequate.
From the central square, walking down Grodzka Street, you can get to the Wawel hill, the site of an old castle and a cathedral where Polish kings used to be coronated and buried at. Our first attempt at visiting the castle and cathedral failed - there were a group of six or seven making the attempt, and as the walk was quite long, and the day was especially cold, we just had to seek occasional refuge in a warm, inviting cellar pubs. And naturally we would order a beer at each one of those pubs... after all, you can't just walk into a pub, take a table and order nothing. That would be inappropriate. About half way to the castle (in pints, that's about three...), we found that we were having a bit too much gigly fun to actually go appreciate architecture - apparently the beer had been a bit stronger than we had expected. We decided to head back, making the necessary stops on the way...
We did get to Wawel hill at a later date though.
I have to say that I advice against visiting Kraków in the winter - although we had a blast, and fell in love with the city, the cold, and the grey, salty sludge that almost ruined our shoes did make us wish for it to be summer... The only positive thing was that there were almost no other tourists there at the time.
Outside the old city, you might want to go ogle at the horrid constructions of the communist regime in the industrial part of the city - it is this part that is also responsible for the pollution which eats away at the historic buildings of Kraków. You'll find huge, megalomanic blocks of apartments in true communist style. Ugly, but worth it just for the experience.
From the city, you can go on short excursions or day trips by bus to various locations near by - the Wieliczka salt mines are named as one of the UNESCO World Heritage sights, and are definitely worth a visit. We also took a bus to Auswich-Birkenau, a chilling, memorable visit that you should not miss.
For people who love to ski, you can take a bus to the mountains at Zakopane... as we did. Another Larry and Moe escapade took place there... and shamefully I have to admit that I was part of the stooge tag-team in this one. (I know you were wondering whether there was a Curly on the trip...) That is another story though, one that I'll probably be writing about soon, under the appropriate Zakopane category.
Finally, the people that did speak English, and that we had the chance to converse with were extremely friendly, warm and hospitable. On New Year's eve, the central square was filled with people who were dancing in the streets, and sharing hugs and kisses. We joined in and had one of the best New Year's celebrations I've had the pleasure to experience. The cold didn't matter, and even the sludge was forgotten for that wonderful night....
The Final Word
Don't miss Kraków - it is a beautiful historic city, with great atmosphere, cheap prices and wonderful people - one of the must-see's in Europe.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Students
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jarno_m_l
|
|
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Reviews written: 50
Trusted by: 53 members
About Me:
Is this where I'm supposed to say something funny? Darn... ran out of space.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.