Today (it was today when I typed this out originally) was the first day
back to school after a week off for easter. I wouldn’t exactly say it was a
much needed break but I definitely enjoyed it. I took advantage of the time off
to travel to places that aren’t worth going to for only a weekend. Starting
Friday before palm Sunday, I left with my travel buddy Carolyn.
Our first stop was Bologna. We chose to go there because it
was the cheapest way to get to out ultimate destination, Krakow, Poland. And we
also wanted to eat some good Italian food. Mission Accomplished. Bologna is a
fairly small city so we were able to see a lot of the sites in the one day we
were there, while leaving time for one, or maybe two gelato breaks.
Early the next morning we were on our way from warm and
sunny Italy to cold and snowy Poland. When we arrived it was only rain, but
that soon froze. Although we had been awake for 5 hours when we landed in
Krakow, it was still quite early in the morning, only 9:30 AM. We were tired,
but excited to see the city so we went out after dropping off our bags at the
hostel. Also, the fact that our room wasn’t ready yet kinda pushed us out the
door.
We walked directly to the main square because that’s usually
a good place to start in an unfamiliar city. Right in the center of the square
was a place called Coffee Heaven, AKA my heaven. I was so excited to be in a
place where there were choices other than black coffee, or coffee with milk
(although I do love my café con leche). I was actually quite overwhelmed with all
the choices (surprise, surprise) and I hadn’t brushed up on my Polish
beforehand, so the all in polish menu was a little difficult for me to
understand. I ended up ordering a cappuchino, which is essentially a café con
leche. The only difference was the size, it was an American size coffee! Maybe
even bigger, and cheap too.
After my trip to coffee heaven, we walked around to find the
Wawel Castle (pronounce Vavel), but when we got there it was already closed for
the day. So, we decided to look for the Jewish Quarter to see some synagogues.
Those too, by the time we found them (polish maps are hard to read), were
closed. Next on our to do list was Schindler’s Factory which was a recommended
site for tourists but I’m not entirely sure of its significance. Well guess
what? NO, it wasn’t closed, well maybe it was. I wouldn’t know because we never
found it! And by that time it was unbearably cold, so we went inside for a warm
drink. We ended the day with an awesome Thai massage (Thai women stepping all
over us) and used the rest of the evening to plan out next few days in Krakow.
The two main sites we wanted to visit were both outside the city, so we decided
to go on an organized tour that would include transportation. Given our track
record, we didn’t want to risk finding these places on our own.
Our first visit was to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. I’d never
been in a mine before and it was one of the coolest things I ever saw. The mine
no longer functions and has been made into a museum with statues and even a
cathedral made entirely of salt. It was hard to believe that what I was looking
at was all salt. So cool!
 |
| statue made of salt |
By the time the tour was over we went straight to lunch
because it was already 3PM and we were starving. The day before we had gotten out kielbasa fix so we were on
the lookout for pierogis. We found a Michelin restaurant that wasn’t too
expensive (nothing really is there) and decided to go there because we wanted
GOOD pierogis. The menu had so many different options so we decided to share a
variety platter which the menu said was good for two people, Turns out it was
good for about 6 people, and even though we were quite hungry, we could not
finish the plate. But we took them to go so they would not go to waste. That
night, we hung out with some hostel friends that were from different places all
over the world.
The next day we went to Auschwitz, a depressing but also
very interesting experience.
We spent the rest of the break in Malaga and Granada, two
other cities in Andalucia. Since Carolyn studied abroad in Granada, I had my
very own tour guide. We stayed at two very interesting hostels; both in terms
of people and appearance. All in all, I had a really great break, and if my
april hadn’t been so busy I would have shared this blog earlier.
Much much much more to come!
