We took another night train from Bratislava to Krakow. This one was only about 7 1/2 hours- which was good and bad. Good because it was another full sleeping compartment (fortunately we were on a bottom and middle bunk) and the couple on the top bunks were clearly very unhappy about being up there and sighed loudly climbing up, stood on someone else’s suitcase to climb up and once they were up talked loudly & angrily to each other. Then, they kept climbing up and down all night, loudly and angrily. So it was good that it wasn’t a longer train ride. The bad news was that the train left at 11pm and got into Krakow at 6:30 am. Check out of our hotel was 12 so we had to wander for almost 11 hours before heading to the train station. We saw a movie, went to the Bratislava Beer Fest, wandered around the biggest Tesco I have ever seen for several hours, had lunch, had dinner and still had several hours to kill. It was a long day with tons of aimless wandering through the very picturesque streets of Bratislava. Then after barely sleeping on the train, we arrived in Krakow at 6:30 am. Check in at the hotel was not until noon, so we had more wandering to do. In related news, we have been traveling steadily north and it is getting steadily later in the year, consequently it is getting colder. Our first morning in Krakow was very cold (43 when we arrived!). Fortunately, the train station is attached to a huge mall. So, we became mall walkers for the morning! After it warmed up around 10 am we ventured out for our first view of Krakow and wandered into the old city.
The old city is surrounded by a beautiful park (built at the expense of most of the city wall that surrounded the old city in medieval times. Fortunately, some of the wall survived thanks to an ingenious architect who understood the importance the wall would have to future generations. He knew that the powers-that-be would never understand preserving the wall for future generations, so he invented a reason they could get behind- the morality of young girls. He argued that without the north wall, the wind would blow through the city and make the young girls sick as they walked to church, and-even worse- could blow their skirts up! It worked, and part of the wall is preserved thanks to his quick thinking and the desire to protect the morality of young girls). Once past the park is a beautiful old town square that has remained more or less the same since the 13th century, Krakow was lucky enough to survive both World Wars more or less intact, because of this it is on the UNESCO world heritage list and has been there since the inception of the list. We wandered around and had an early lunch before heading back to our hotel to check in and have a nap. The nap ended up lasting a few hours and the rest of the day was spent wandering the city and getting some burgers for dinner.
The next day was not so tame- we did not one but two walking tours! The first was the basic Krakow history walking tour. We heard the history of the city and learned the fate of its walls. It was founded by a Duke who built a castle on a beautiful hill. The hill was unfortunately guarded by a dragon who fed on livestock and young girls. The duke offered the hand of his daughter to anyone who could kill the terrible beast. Finally, after many failed attempts one young man was successful. He married the daughter and the people of Krakow adopted the dragon as their city mascot and lived in peace- at least for a while. Poland has had a fairly turbulent history being torn between the Ottoman Empire (or, as our guide called them- the original bad tourists) and later the Russians and Germans.
Of course, they have a lot of great stories as well. One of the stories we heard was about a young man who wanted to be an actor. While he was a student studying theater, the Communist era started and education became a crime. The young man decided that if he was going to risk his life by studying he would study something more worthwhile and switched to theology. This young man became an important priest and rose through the ranks of the Catholic Church until he became a cardinal. The current pope died and this Polish theater student-turned Cardinal went down to the Vatican to vote and came back Pope John Paul II. He came to visit the old church that he lived in while he was in Krakow and speak to the highly Roman Catholic citizens of Poland. Remember, this is still during communist times. While the communist party decided to allow his visit, they canceled trains and buses to prevent people from coming to see him. It didn’t even come close to working- over 2 million people made the trip however they could to see him. After his official speaking engagement ended, he went back to his old church to get some rest. However, people followed him back and played music aand shouted for the pope. Finally, he opened his window (henceforth known as the Pope’s Window) and chatted with the people into the night.
The pope window
One of the most beautiful things we saw in Krakow was the Wawel Castle. It started in the 11th century and has been added onto since. It looks like a time line of Polish architecture and is incredibly eclectic. In the front of the Wawel Castle is a statue of a very famous general, Kosciuszko. He was friends with Thomas Jefferson and helped establish Westpoint in the US, and his name is on the highest mountain in Australia. Interesting. It was an excellent tour and our guide was wonderful. He encouraged us to ask us anything- so at the end of the tour I asked him where Nick could get a haircut. He not only gave us a recommendation, but called and made Nick an appointment for 6pm (thank goodness for that, there is no way Nick would have gone on his own, he has been making comments about needing a haircut but dragging his feet every step of the way). He had to make it for 6pm since we were off to our second walking tour that afternoon.
The second tour was the best tour we have been on yet- Foods of Krakow! Our group was very small- only 13 people and a guide. We had a German/American couple, a couple from Turkey, a couple from Australia, a woman from Iowa, a woman from Portugal, a woman from New Zealand and a couple from Belgium. It was the perfect size tour, we got a chance to chat with everyone and really enjoyed it. We started off at a street food cart where we tried obwarzanek- a cross between a bagel and a pretzel covered in sesame seeds, salt or poppy seeds that are typical of Krakow. Next, we went to a bar where we learned about “afterbites”- foods that are pickled and greasy that help cut the taste of vodka. They hail from communist times when those foods were readily available and vodka (invented in Poland) was drunk straight as a shot instead of as part of a mixed drink. We tried pickled herring (with lots of onions) and bread spread with pork schmaltz (rendered fat). We walked all over the city, trying different foods and drinks in small restaurants where few, if any, people spoke english and everyone inside was a native. The foods cost between 1 and 2 zloty ($1.00= 3.29 zloty) and were incredible! We went past the Wawel Chocolate shop which has stood in Krakow for over 150 years- this is impressive because it means it survived 2 world wars and communism. Not many places can say the same.
We had traditional Polish Pierogi (pierogi is already plural, so it is not correct to say peirogis) made with potato and cottage cheese. Next, we went to a market where we tried fresh cottage cheese made by the “Monday Ladies” – they worked all week to prepare the goods they sell on Mondays, another day it will be another group. We also went to a stall selling pickled cabbage and cucumbers- both of which were really good (I even tried the pickle- yum!). Polish pickling does not involve vinegar, instead it is all about fermentation which results in a very different, unique flavor. Our final stop in the market was at a small butcher shop where we tried a variety of smoked meats. Our guide informed us that everything that is not pickled in Poland is smoked, which may be a problem as the EU will be imposing new rules on the amount of smoking of meats that can be done- not only for health reasons, but for environmental reasons. This will be a huge problem for the traditional way of life in Poland. Our next stop was to try Zurek. While the Zurek we tried had bacon, our guide informed us that the bacon was an abomination- at least in her eyes. Our guide grew up in a poor town in Poland and said that the way it was traditionally made in her town was without bacon. Next we tried Bigos or Hunters Stew, made with cabbage and whatever meat was around.
Our next stop was to try to some traditional Polish vodka. Like other countries we have been to in this area, the drink is easily adaptable to whatever fruit one has laying around. Although cherry, quince and plum are traditional. We tried the plum and quince. Because our group was so small we had all been chatting and getting to know one another and sipping vodka only made the group more social and our guide had a hard time getting us all out the door so we could go to the next stop. She mentioned that this was traditionally when the discipline of the group broke down… odd, I wonder why? We made our final food stop at a restaurant serving Szarlotka, a deep fried apple dumpling kind of thing. Covered in powder sugar and oh so good! Poland has a bit of a problem, they produce the most apples in the EU and export a lot of them to Russia. Or at least, they used to. Putin has an embargo on apples currently, so Poland has a campaign going with posters around the cities saying “be a patriot, eat apples” and the Australian couple said that on the train ride from Germany into Poland they were served apples. It was an incredible tour and one of my favorite tours. I really enjoyed connecting with the culture through food. Plus, we made some new Australian friends! After the tour, we rushed off to get Nicks hair cut but then went over to the apartment the Australians were renting and spent a pleasant evening getting to know them and discussing sustainable food and gardening practices and comparing George Bush to their current prime minister- it was great fun!
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