Europe 2019 - Day 26

1 June 2019, Saturday

Today we travel to another part of Poland, Krakow. I said goodbye to my creepy hostel with glee. Then we had to take a train and stop one station away to the bus stop. We had some problems at the train station as we did not know which train to take and all the counters had long queues so we just ended up buying a ticket at the machine. The ticket gave us seat numbers but I wanted to just stand since our stop was 5 minutes away; but the crowd was jostling us in so we had to go to our seats anyway. 

My friend sat in the wrong seat (my bad!) and an old man was trying to tell her something in Polish but of course neither of us understood, then a young man translated that since we were only 5 minutes away the old man was worried we wouldn’t have time to get off. How sweet. The young man helped me with my luggage (again, how sweet!) and as we walked towards the door to stand and wait, we had caused such a stir that many people in the coach waved us goodbye. Drama queens that we are, of course. 

We arrived at Krakow at about 4 p.m. and made our way to our hostel, which is in the centre of the old town. We have a HUGE room with 2 beds and 3 bedsits, a round table and a writing desk, cupboards and smaller cabinets. This is by far the largest room I’ve been in in Europe and I love it! So warm and cosy, I feel like a queen who may even entertain guests here in this room. Our host was a very nice man too, who gave us maps and information on the interesting places to visit in Krakow. 

Armed with a map of the town, we ventured out to Old Town Krakow. Krakow is known as the cultural capital of Poland and its historic political capital in the Middle Ages. I notice that there are more tourists here, which means there are more people here who can speak English, and therefore things become easier and friendlier. Less stares, too. Much better than Warsaw which is like any typical city although MUCH better than Munich (roll eyes). 

The Old Town of Krakow is filled with churches and museums. Some of the churches we saw were the Roman Catholic Parish of the Holy Cross or  Świętego Krzyża in Polish with a theatre nearby housed in a building with beautiful architecture, St Mary’s Basilica or Bazylika Mariacka, the Church of St Barbara or Świętego Barbary, the Church of St Anne or Świętego Anny, the Church of St. Francis of Assisi with the Monastery of the Franciscan Order beside it, the Church of St Peter and St Paul, and another monastery known as the cloister of the Dominican Fathers.  

Then we went to see the Barbakan or the Barbican, ancient fortifications around the city. The entrance to the city itself was by way of a gate known as St Florian’s gate, which looks more like a tower than a gate. It is about 33 metres and was built as part of a protective rampart around Kraków after the Tatar attack of 1241 which destroyed most of the city. The permit for the construction of new city defenses featuring stone watchtowers, fortified gates and a moat was issued by Prince Leszek II the Black in 1285. The gate became the main entryway to the Old Town. It was connected by a long bridge (known as the neck) to the circular barbican erected of brick on the other side of the moat. In about 1565–66 a municipal arsenal was built next to St. Florian's gate. At one time, the fortifications had 33 towers in all; now only 3 are left.

I read that much of the Old Town of Krakow is a heritage of the Middle Ages, of course reconstructed and renovated over the centuries but many of the buildings were originally around during the Middle Ages, for example the Church of St Francis which dates back to the 13th century as well as parts of the Barbakan and the fortification towers. And that is why the city centre of Krakow i.e. the Old Town, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

We then walked to the main square, which had a market square beside it known as the cloth hall, as used by merchants since the 13th century! It is said to be the largest European market square. And it was really huge compared to the main squares we saw in other countries, marked by an impressive tower that used to be part of the Town Hall. At the square there was a well dedicated to one Walenty Badylak (1904-1980), a soldier of the home army, marking the exact place where on 21 March 1980 he committed the act of self immolation as a protest against the communist-bolshevist murderers. Yikes!

Lastly to the Royal Castle of Wawel which sits on Wawel Hill, and was built at the behest of King Casimir III the Great. The castle, being one of the largest in Poland, represents nearly all European architectural styles of medieval, renaissance and baroque periods. For centuries the residence of the kings of Poland and the symbol of Polish statehood, the Castle is now one of the country’s premier art museums.

We had dinner at a nearby restaurant (I was so hungry I had a LARGE breaded pork chop with cauliflower and mushroom sauce on the side - very delicious) and then we walked around the main square area where all the night vendors were selling all sorts of food, arts, crafts and souvenirs. It was quite nice to see. Then we headed back to the hostel, shower and sleep. The hostel at night is unfortunately also a bit creepy. Not as creepy as yesterday but the stairway to our room is not lighted and as usual I had to use the torch light on my phone. And of course knowing me, I took several wrong turns before finding our room (roll eyes). Why are all these places so dark I will never understand. Anyway the room is nice and cosy with lots of orange light so nice to sleep.