Greetings from Krakow, Poland!

30/05/2010 – 08:38 - Day 5 – Krakow, Poland

Luckily the hotel yesterday (29/05) took care of our bags for us and we headed to Letany Park in North central Prague in the morning after a late wake up (9am) and breakfast.

Letany Park was rather nice, with a massive monument/dome at the top with a restaurant and vistas overlooking old town and the Jewish quarter. We slowly made our way back down into the Old Town and headed back to Wenceslas Square for a final meal at the Black Baron – for lunch. I had the usual and Laura opted for a goulash for her final Czech meal. Fine choices all round I say. In the afternoon we sat for a bit in the old town square, listening to some music from the Czech Republic and neighbouring countries, which was being played in the square.

After sitting there for an hour or so we went to new town to try and find me a cap because I’d burnt my head the previous day – sods law! We couldn’t find one I wanted there, so I knew of a C&A on the outskirts from my previous visit to Prague and we found a cap – yay! £3 as well, bargain!

After that little quest we went to the supermarket in new town that we knew about, stocked up on sandwiches, biscuits and drinks for the evening and slowly made our way back to the hotel to collect the bags and then onto the train station.

We got to the train station stupidly early, out of nothing better to do and we both people watched for a few hours, taking particular delight at a man whose luggage consisted of a dining chair amongst other things, a drunk man, lots of young people dressed in all white (about 300 – we still have no idea why) and a dog which looked like a lizard!

When we finally got on the train, we realised we had actually got tickets for the couchettes, up to 6 people per cabin! Luckily, hardly anyone was in our carriage and therefore only one other person was in with us, which was what we were expecting in the first place. A young man from Brazil, we chatted for a bit, about football and travelling amongst other things, but to me he was quite quiet and reserved. There was also a Canadian girl, whom I admit looked younger than us, also on the train, in the next carriage, she seemed travelled.

The sleeper itself was OK, nothing special. The bed was comfortable enough, I had bottom bunk on one side, the Brazilian lad on the other and Lilly was on the middle bunk above me. I slept OK I guess for a first night on a train, at least next time I’ll be a little more relaxed.

I woke up properly at about 5:45am; I couldn’t really get to sleep after that, knowing that it was 40 minutes before we arrived. When we finally got to Krakow we slowly made our way from the station, to and through old town. We saw quite a few drunks still out from the night before, which gave us a wonderful first impression of the place. However, we had a stop in the main square at 7am, the sun just peering over the buildings onto St Mary’s Basilica in the town square. I had to take a picture there and then, but I fully intend on going back there in a bit, it was beautiful!

We eventually found our way to the main road out of Krakow that our hotel was on, and got the bus from there – about 2km to the hotel. We’ve now checked in, showered and soon will be ready to explore Krakow fully.

19:45 – Day 5

We headed back out at about 10am, and proceeded to walk around the outskirts of Old Town before starting at the Barbican and making our way through old town, following our guide books recommended walk. On the way, we booked our tours for Auschwitz and the Salt mines, we are doing both in one day, on Tuesday, so essentially tomorrow is our last full day in Krakow. We got both for £30 each which I think is a bargain.

Anyway, our walking tour was really good, the fine weather helped. We climbed the old town hall tower, but it wasn’t as great as I thought it would be, there was no place to step outside on top, just windows. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant, with the idea that a big lunch/small tea was a better idea. We went to this place near Wawel Hill (which we are planning on exploring tomorrow) and the portions were disgustingly huge. Seriously, they were horrible. I hate wasting food, I wasted about half of it today. I really didn’t like the place, they even had a massive trough like basin for throwing up in in the toilets – nice establishment! £6, I thought how big could a portion be?!

Never mind, shortly after finishing our meal, the skies opened once again, this time with thunder. We sat outside, under some shelter hoping it would pass and after about 10 minutes it did. We then headed to another suburb of Krakow – Kazimierz. We walked around on another guide book walking tour, and saw lots of beautiful churches and very old synagogues – it was the old Jewish quarter. The tour ended at the only Jewish cemetery left in Krakow – it was very sad to see graves of 6/7 year olds that lived and died during the war.

Just as we had finished that, the skies opened yet again, we jumped on a tram and headed for the train station, where we booked our tickets for Warsaw, about £10 each. Another bargain! Roll on Wawel Hill tomorrow, and hopefully better weather! Will be catching up on sleep tonight methinks, and nothing better to send me to the land of nod than some Polish beer. I bought 4 cans from the petrol station for 3 pounds. Zywiec, 5.6%! No wonder they are always bloody pissed!