katiesfootprints: Krakow

After just a day in Warsaw I was very eager to get to Krakow (that's Krakov, to you) as I had heard great things, so up early to get on the first available train. Being familiar with where the central station now was I grabbed my ticket and then had a bit of a wait. Decided to look through the adjoining mall and had just about chosen a dress when I remembered I had vowed never to shop at H&M ever again. Uneventful train ride to Krakow but arrived in time to join the Jewish Quarter walking tour that I was aiming for. This was a tour around the area known as Kazimierz, where the Jews had been driven out of the city centre (and all over Europe) to go and live - the tour had quite a Schindler's list focus. Was it really Schindler's List? No one actually knows but the general consensus is no. We were shown the remaining walled confines of the Ghetto – where hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced to live during theWWII before being sent to the nearby Plasvow Concentration Camp. We finally finished up at the museum in Schindler's Factory for another guided tour.

Once back at the hostel and having hungrily devoured the free Polish dinner on offer, I inadvertently woke my new room mates up who were napping before heading out “oooh can I tag along?” I asked the two obviously awesome American boys... and they didn't get rid of me for the next three days. So we bar hopped ourselves around the Old Town Market and after dancing on top of some tables decided it was time to head down to the infamous Singer bar in the Jewish Quarter – a lively little pub where all the tables are old Singer sewing machines. Like any good night out we were in search of food by the end of it and the WikiSherpa app delivered as always – we navigated our way to a local Kielbasa Van (Polish sausage) where we chowed down on possibly the best after town snack I have ever had.

Early the next morning (why oh why did we go out last night?) we embarked on the Auschwitz tour – obviously a must for any Krakow visit. After an hour long history video we were guided around Auschwitz I followed by Auschwitz II Birkenau – I'm actually struggling to write this bit... there are no words to describe being here, sobering is about the closest. You can absolutely not even begin to imagine the feelings or thoughts that these people who were sent to these concentration camps had going through their minds. And then remembering that they were all under the impression that they were going only to work in the camps when the reality was that three out of four people were immediately sent to the gas chambers upon arrival. Death was the punishment for anything and everything and living conditions were atrocious at an absolute best. To walk along the same roads as the prisoners both sentenced to death and liberated, even in silence to absorb the notion, doesn't begin to compare as in an hour we got to walk away with as much freedom as when we arrived. Even those liberated were pretty much given a life sentence after being subjected to such hell. To try to put this into perspective, one and a half million people were killed in the three Auschwitz camps alone in eighteen months. Definitely the most emotional part of the trip.

So we had a quiet afternoon to absorb all that before heading out for a repeat of the night before with one notable difference – karaoke! This is a special shout out to the latest sensation known as “Nipple City” and the two lead singers Brian and Carter. I was especially lucky to not only be present but to participate in their international debut. But don't Google this one (work might fire you), we hold the rights to the only video's ever made, watch this space though – they'll be world famous one day...

I was especially excited the next day as my sister Emma randomly happened to be in Krakow at the same time as me. So after a day of post drinking banter and wandering around the Old Town and its very pretty Wawel Castle I headed out to the Salt Mines to meet up with her. We spent the next three hours being guided around only about 1% of the huge mines 130m underground – very grandiose, an actual city down there complete with shops, restaurants, ballrooms and several churches, and that's just in the part that we saw.

It was time for the boys to finally be rid of me, so we cheersed our last Zywiec Piwo (fave Polish beer) to only being able to speak English (or is that American?) and inhaled a giant traditional meat platter. A couple of quiets out with Emma and her boyfriend Dan and his sister Tessa and we called it a night reasonably early.

I packed my final day full of walking tours – six guided tours in four days! Haven't I been stating (definitely not complaining) about being walking-toured out? First was the token Old Town tour but with our very entertaining and knowledgable guide, Maciek, it was a lot of fun and didn't get tedious like so many of the others can.

I signed up to his next tour as well because after all these weeks of war talk I felt like I needed to learn some more – Communist Tour! About half an hour out of the central city we were taken to Nowej Huty a community that has been designed and built to be the ideal communist city and able to withstand any attack that may happen upon it including nuclear. Eye opening to say the least – apartment blocks built so that all amenities are within the pentagonal shaped walls of the complex which are designed not to allow tanks to pass through them. Neighbours are able to spy on one another and the walls are thick enough that you can just step to the side once you have thrown a grenade at your attacker. Being in Poland, vodka is compulsory and so we rounded off the tour at a typical communist pub – unfortunately for me this came with some unwelcome attention from the local drunk who insisted on me dancing with him, lucky for me he is “known to the establishment” and after the obligatory one dance the surly waitresses were having none of it.

Utterly exhausted I made my way back to the hostel having booked a ticket on a 630am train the next morning – not my smartest move, but I had an idea on what was awaiting me at the other end and have not been disappointed – but it sure is good to be out of the city for a while.

Schindler's Office