Memories of Krakow...

Krakow April 2008

Memorable Moments:

The Horse and cart ride around the main market square ‘Rynek Glowny’

Lisa’s obsession with cheeto’s! Cheeto’s for breakfast, cheeto’s for lunch…

Having lunch outside surrounded by pigeons, Hayley’s favourite bird…

The Party Tram! While walking down the road in the evening we heard music getting closer and closer.   Then a tram fit to bursting with people dancing up against the windows, loud pumping music and disco lights flashing went past us with a sign saying Party Trams!

The ‘Alkohole’ shops

Trying to pull off ‘jump’ photos where everyone was in the air at the same moment

Arriving at our hostel, whose walls had bullet holes on the outside, it was pretty gloomy looking and had 4 beds literally next to each in a tiny room, but it did what we needed for the few days we were there.

The beer man! Who we stumbled upon three times in one day around the city – although we couldn’t be sure it was the same one…

Lisa studying for her ACCA exam on the aeroplane

Our trip to Auschwitz.  I have many memories from this trip to the concentration camp.  The image which will always stay with me was the room full of shoes.  Just hundreds and hundreds of shoes filling an entire room from top to bottom.  Shoes worn once by real people who were stripped of their belongings, even their shoes.  There were other rooms which had collections of spectacles, clothes, suitcases there was even a room full of hair.  Inside the buildings were photos of the people who had lived there.  It was an emotional day, incredibly sad, we all felt outraged, angry and upset.  At the same time it was very informative and although seeing all this was distressing for some reason I felt it was important I had seen it.  It was unsettling walking and standing where people slept and lived in such awful conditions, their beds were like bunks just hard wood with a few strands of straw.  I will never forget Auschwitz.  

Architectural genius:

Wieliczka Salt Mine, one of the oldest working salt mines in the world.  The lift down into the mine seemed to go on forever, very claustrophobic and had so many people crammed in to the cage.  The mine itself was incredible full of statues and a whole chapel carved out of rock salt.  We each got a piece of rock as a souvenir and the tour guide dared us to taste it!

Wawel Castle was surrounded by a big courtyard where we sat and ate Jazz lolly ice creams and watched people passing by.  There were flowers and blossom in bloom which were really pretty.

Little houses along cobbled streets with painted fronts to look like bricks.

Culinary Delights:

There was this amazing Ice Cream parlour in the square and the queues went outside the shop even though it was so cold!  There were no seats inside so we sat outside eating huge ice creams smothered in fruits and sauce shivering in hats and gloves with silly grins on our faces.

I honestly can’t remember what and where we ate in the evenings! I’m sure we must have had some local traditional foods at some point.

What the Weatherman says: (April)

Freezing cold most of the time, we did have good weather though and sometimes the warm sun came out.  The only rain we had was whilst we were at Auschwitz quite fitting for the mood.

Arty Fartyness:

In the main square there is a huge bronze statue of a sideways head called Eros Bendato which we had a lot of fun with…

We visited some parts of the old Jewish quarter known as the ‘ghetto’ where parts of the film Schindler’s List were filmed.

Walkometer/Exhaustion Rating: 5/10

There was lot’s of sights to see but we made use of the transport, the trams were very handy for getting around so we didn’t tire ourselves out with too much walking.  If it were warmer though I could imagine you’d do a fair bit of walking.  The journey to Auschwitz was a hefty amount of time spent on a very rickety old bus!