Poland and Krakow

A couple of weekends ago a friend of ours, Joanna, offered to show us around Krakow with her boyfriend, and we took her up on the offer. We rented a car from our favorite car rental guy again and got on the road. We wanted to set out early however there was a little miscommunication between us and him and we got on the road much later than intended. It kind of sucked because I could have gotten another good 1.5 hours of sleep, but we were all in that situation so I guess oh well.

One we actually go on the road we stopped in a little Slovakian town for some breakfast and got a parking ticket from two female officers who were anything but nice. Thankfully it was only 30 euro but still sucked big time.

There was a nice castle that our friend Andrea tried to show us when we went to her cabin however it was to late that day. We tried to go see the castle again however it is closed for the winter. We were a bit frustrated and thus laid seige with our little Skoda Fabia.

Actually we really just didn't know you weren't allowed to drive you car up. Thankfully the guy who came out was a good sport about it. He just politely informed us we're not allowed to have our car here. But let us take a few pictures and be on our way with out throwing a fit. Could you imagine trying something like that in the States?

A little later in the day we came up to another town with a really awesome castle. The tour was only in Slovak but the guy spoke a little polish so Joanna was kind enough to translate for us but the Castle needed little verbal explanation to increase the shear impressiveness of the castle. Also every little town with a hill has some sort of castle here in the eastern bloc but some are way more worth visiting than others and this one is one of those. It is a very vertical castle and parts of it just seem to grow up and out of the rock that it sits on.

after the castle we didn't stop for much else on the way to Poland. Shortly after we crossed the border Steve just barely got out of getting a speeding ticket and I took over driving to Krakow. The only reason the officer let him off too is because we didn't have enough money to pay in the Polish currency and because we're not Polish the fine had to be paid there on the spot. This said there were no speed markers and we were moving with traffic, but apparently you're just supposed to know the speed limit magically from these little town signs. So I basically drove at the pace slower than sea urchin for a good portion of the rest of the way due to shear fear of getting a ticket.

Once we got there we checked into the hostel (The Good By Lenin Hostel) and Steve and I found a place to park the car and walked back. We met up with Joanna's boyfriend Adam and went out for Pirogies.

Afterwards we had a couple of drinks and went to bed.

Steve woke up pretty early the next day and Kevin and I got ready shortly there after and we all went to the Christmas Markets with the intention of meeting up with Joanna and Adam but apparently we just barely missed each other and none of our phones were working. Kevin, Steve and I spent the better part of the day at the market getting gifts for people. They had a lot of really amazing wood work things. And just some really interesting stuff in general.

One of the market stalls where I bought a beautiful chess set

One of the many big churches in the Krakow near the market

Pigeons and man they were fearless. If the girls tried to get rid of some more would fly in to take the old ones place.

After spending almost until dark at the market we went back to the Hostel to drop off our loot. We met up with Joanna and Adam there and we agreed to meet for dinner after we went and saw the Castle. Unfortunately the Castle buildings were closed (apparently since 14:00). So we couldn't go in and see anything.

But we walked around the complex and then met up with Joanna and Adam for dinner. It was a nice dinner. After the dinner every one else went for a Polish pickle and vodka party. I don't much care for Vodka and I wanted to get up early the next day to go see the Jewish district and the market there. So I stayed at the hostel and went to bed.

It was only a 10 minute walk to get down to the Jewish district of Krakow. I looked for latkas at the suggestion of Laura but was unsuccessful. There were a number of Synagogue in a very small area which were interesting. I wandered around the area and took a number of pictures on Steve's camera. We found a couple of geo caches in the area and also saw the market.

The high Synagogue

At the end of the Street is the Old Synagogue

Fence around the Old Synagogue

Fence close up

Part of the Old Synagogue.

After while Steve and I wandered into the market. It was pretty big and had all sorts of goods.

Mostly clothing. We had a good time but it was short as we had to leave by a certain time.

That afternoon we did a tour of Auschwitz. It was a deeply personal experience and I do now wish to write about it here more than I was there.

Later that night we went out for a beer and retired pretty early as we had to leave the next day for Bratislava. We did get a few more pictures of the central square.

I really like how this one turned out.

The next day we got up relatively early to go back to Bratislava. I slept or watched movies for the better part of the car trip, while being in and out of sleep. I was really exhausted. I know the guys did a fair bit of geo caching on the way back. All in all it was a wonderful trip, Krakow is really a beautiful city and possibly one of my favorite places we've been