12-13 August 2013
Day 3: Arrival
The first goal of the day was to find the hotel and dump our bags. After lightening our loads we went for a walk around the old town with our leader for a brief orientation and to see some of the sights like the Barbican and the main market square.
Lunch
We picked a restaurant on the main market square that looked good and sat down for lunch. The local beer is Zywiec, it's amazing, and the local specialty is pierogi, which is similar to ravioli with pasta pillows stuffed with...well...stuff. There's quite a few choices with the pierogi but this time I had them steamed with meat and cabbage stuffing and although it wasn't a flavour explosion, it was still quite nice.
Salt mine
In the afternoon we jumped on a bus for a day trip to one of the popular tourist destinations, the salt mines. The tour starts with a walk down 40 flights of stairs (or a lot at least) to about 100m underground. From there you walk, with your guide, through various tunnels and rooms of the mine where you see salt statues, churches carved into the walls, a giant function room and all sorts of other amazing creations from people who clearly love to carve salt. I really enjoyed the tour and it was the first one I've done where they give you headphones and the guide talks into a microphone so you can be looking around at things but still hear the talk; such a great idea. Before you ask, yes I licked the walls and they do taste salty. Also, the guide, a Polish woman, made us all laugh with a few jokes and the way that she'd whisper "come closer" to us all whenever we stopped.
Thoughts about the mine
Dinner
Once back in Krakow, we wandered the streets of the old town until we found a restaurant that looked ok. They stuck us all on our own at a fancy table inside and I want to say it's because outside was packed but maybe they were just hiding us. It was an Italian restaurant so I ordered the lasagna, which was pretty good but more importantly, I had more of the wonderful Zywiec beer. We finished the night at some sports bar watching the world athletics something or rather.
Day 4: Auschwitz
First thing in the morning we jumped on a bus to see the other major tourist attraction in Krakow, Auschwitz. On the bus they played a documentary about what happened at the camp so we'd all have a better idea of what we were seeing. The tour took us to Auschwitz I first, where we were shown cells, a gas chamber, a furnace and personal items from people who'd come to the camp.
Then we were back on the bus for a few minutes to go see Auschwitz II-Birkenau, another camp of the complex. Here we saw the railway and rail car that the people would've come in on, the remains of the destroyed gas chambers and furnaces, the remains of hundreds of prisoner buildings and went inside a few of the remaining prisoner buildings.
It was a very sobering experience that I'm glad I saw. Let's hope we can learn from this so it never happens again.
Some facts and observations from the day:
Exploring
Once back in Krakow, we went in search of food and ended up at a Mexican restaurant where I had the biggest and tastiest burrito I've ever had. I also had more Zywiec beer; gotta love it when the local beer is good because it's so easy to get. After we went for a walk to the castle and the Jewish quarter as well as just generally wandering around any street that looked interesting.
Dinner
Dinner was at a Polish restaurant where almost everyone ordered pierogi. This time I shared with my New Zealander friend and we had a mixture of fried and boiled as well as meat and cabbage. The surprise came when our food came out because all the fried pierogi are served on a plate made of bread. I wasn't sure what the etiquette on eating the plate was but I was so stuffed after all the pierogi that I didn't have to worry.
Day 3: Arrival
The first goal of the day was to find the hotel and dump our bags. After lightening our loads we went for a walk around the old town with our leader for a brief orientation and to see some of the sights like the Barbican and the main market square.
Lunch
We picked a restaurant on the main market square that looked good and sat down for lunch. The local beer is Zywiec, it's amazing, and the local specialty is pierogi, which is similar to ravioli with pasta pillows stuffed with...well...stuff. There's quite a few choices with the pierogi but this time I had them steamed with meat and cabbage stuffing and although it wasn't a flavour explosion, it was still quite nice.
Salt mine
In the afternoon we jumped on a bus for a day trip to one of the popular tourist destinations, the salt mines. The tour starts with a walk down 40 flights of stairs (or a lot at least) to about 100m underground. From there you walk, with your guide, through various tunnels and rooms of the mine where you see salt statues, churches carved into the walls, a giant function room and all sorts of other amazing creations from people who clearly love to carve salt. I really enjoyed the tour and it was the first one I've done where they give you headphones and the guide talks into a microphone so you can be looking around at things but still hear the talk; such a great idea. Before you ask, yes I licked the walls and they do taste salty. Also, the guide, a Polish woman, made us all laugh with a few jokes and the way that she'd whisper "come closer" to us all whenever we stopped.
Thoughts about the mine
- The walls of the mine looked more like rock than salt although you'd see big clumps of white every now and then.
- There was a lot of wooden logs used as supports, arches, railing, etc in the mine and it made it feel really cool
- There are a lot of stairs in the mine and we only explored 2% of it
- The sculptures are amazing. There's so much detail in them
Dinner
Once back in Krakow, we wandered the streets of the old town until we found a restaurant that looked ok. They stuck us all on our own at a fancy table inside and I want to say it's because outside was packed but maybe they were just hiding us. It was an Italian restaurant so I ordered the lasagna, which was pretty good but more importantly, I had more of the wonderful Zywiec beer. We finished the night at some sports bar watching the world athletics something or rather.
Day 4: Auschwitz
First thing in the morning we jumped on a bus to see the other major tourist attraction in Krakow, Auschwitz. On the bus they played a documentary about what happened at the camp so we'd all have a better idea of what we were seeing. The tour took us to Auschwitz I first, where we were shown cells, a gas chamber, a furnace and personal items from people who'd come to the camp.
Then we were back on the bus for a few minutes to go see Auschwitz II-Birkenau, another camp of the complex. Here we saw the railway and rail car that the people would've come in on, the remains of the destroyed gas chambers and furnaces, the remains of hundreds of prisoner buildings and went inside a few of the remaining prisoner buildings.
It was a very sobering experience that I'm glad I saw. Let's hope we can learn from this so it never happens again.
Some facts and observations from the day:
- The Auschwitz II camp is massive
- The Nazis recycled everything; clothes were sent back to German cities, hair was turned into material, gold teeth were melted down and ashes were used as fertilizer
- The people being sent to Auschwitz really had no idea. They even had to buy a ticket for the train to get there
- The weather was appropriately crappy with lots of cloud cover and almost raining a few times
Exploring
Once back in Krakow, we went in search of food and ended up at a Mexican restaurant where I had the biggest and tastiest burrito I've ever had. I also had more Zywiec beer; gotta love it when the local beer is good because it's so easy to get. After we went for a walk to the castle and the Jewish quarter as well as just generally wandering around any street that looked interesting.
Dinner
Dinner was at a Polish restaurant where almost everyone ordered pierogi. This time I shared with my New Zealander friend and we had a mixture of fried and boiled as well as meat and cabbage. The surprise came when our food came out because all the fried pierogi are served on a plate made of bread. I wasn't sure what the etiquette on eating the plate was but I was so stuffed after all the pierogi that I didn't have to worry.
Thoughts about Krakow
- Quite clean and built up
- Lots of cool old buildings
- Good weather
- Cheap food and beer
- Not at all the stereotypical grey, concrete eastern bloc feel that a lesser educated man might've expected
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| Just outside Auschwitz I |
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| In Auschwitz II-Birkenau |
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| At the entrance to the castle in Krakow. Bender looks angry too |
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| Panorama of the main market square |
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| The most decorative room in the salt mine with a lot of religious carvings |
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| One of the many tunnels we walked through in the salt mine |
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| The front of Auschwitz I |
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| The giant burrito (and the amazing beer)! |
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| The bread plate for the fried pierogi |
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| A panorama of inside the castle walls in Krakow |
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| A fact board from Auschwitz I |
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| The railway from the checkpoint into Auschwitz II-Birkenau |
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| The remains of prisoner buildings in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. All that's left are the chimneys |
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| One of the destroyed gas chamber and furnace buildings at Auschwitz II-Birkenau |
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