Kraków day by day

After the advert in the Stage Committee newsletter, I was the first to buy a ticket for the Poland trip and the first to arrive at the bus that would take us to Charleroi, afraid of being stuck in the metro (as actually happened to some others). How could I have ignored this opportunity to go to the country of the upcoming presidency? Kraków here we come!

Or not? After being stuck in traffic in Brussels for quite some time, missing the motorway exit to the airport (luckily there was a second exit) and enduring the rising temperature on the bus, check-in was easy and before we knew it we were in Kraków. We were welcomed with fireworks (i.e. a thunderstorm) and rain. A group of many feet and wheels invaded the quiet and shiny streets and we had our first guided tour through Kraków from the modern shopping mall to the beautiful main square, where our hostel awaited us. After a quick check-in, we were happy to get some food; demands were not yet high and we settled for pizza, followed by some drinks on the main square where we found others munching away on the first of many Polish gourmet meals. Back in the hostel we had three rooms; two rooms of eight people and one room of 18 people. Surprisingly the room with 18 people was the quietest! And there was no snoring… except for me perhaps, but I didn’t receive any complaints.

The next day we were eager to get to know the city. Luckily an iphone led the way and gave us a first impression of the city from the Barbican and the park surrounding the city centre, which used to be the defensive wall but now is a nice place for a walk, via the Jagiellonian University (the oldest university in Poland with famous students such as Copernicus and a display of mathematic and astronomy inventions outside) to Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter. While enjoying our first Polish lunch we were made aware of the fact that we were supposed to meet at the bus stop to go to the salt mines half an hour earlier. After some panic and running around to find the bus we still had to wait half an hour; time to taste one of the many excellent Polish cakes.

Wielickza is one of the oldest salt mines in Europe. The tour started with descending a dazzling amount of stairs (especially dazzling when looking in the space between the stairs and not seeing the ground…), followed by a 3.5km tour through several 'rooms' where the ways of mining were displayed and the tour guide was ambushed with questions from more than 30 stagiaires. Most impressive though were the several chapels made by the miners in which everything was made of salt, from shrines to candlesticks, frescos to statues. The tour ended with a 90 minute wait for the lift to take us back to daylight…our punishment for asking too many questions? Luckily we were kept company by a group of enthusiastic Polish kids that taught us Polish by laughing very loudly at every word we tried to pronounce. After dinner in an excellent Polish restaurant where we drank a lot of wine to get some warmth back in our veins the day ended with dancing in a bar. Hips were swaying and romance blossomed…

On the third day we went to the former concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Our tour guide was a very eloquent speaker whose personal history was linked to the camp. She led us through the barracks, watchtowers, wired fences and crematoria, which evoked thoughts of the more than 1.1 million people killed here during World War II. No words can describe what you feel when walking through the different rooms with displays of shoes, suitcases, glasses and hair, and when passing by the cellblocks and standing cells…

After returning to Kraków the whole group had dinner at the same restaurant as the night before, enjoying some very good Polish food once again. The restaurant even had a piano player and I felt out of place in my baggy clothes… although the 80 year old piano player didn’t look too happy in his tuxedo either. I had Bigos, a kind of stew with meat and sour cabbage served in bread, very familiar to us Dutch but of course much tastier in Poland. After dinner we went clubbing and ended up on a patio that was painted bright red, with white seats and a bar. Inside the building there were several rooms with different kinds of music and lots of sweaty people trying to dance the night away.

The sun was shining and we joined the Polish festivities to celebrate the defeat of the dragon of Kraków. Almost all trainees did the guided walking tour in the Jewish Quarter this day. The walking tours are organised daily by young tour guides for free; one through the city centre and one in the Jewish district. A real must when going to Kraków – the tour guides provide lots of information in a fun and informal way and give a good overview of the city and its history. For instance, what is the real story behind Oskar Schindler and which parts of the city are filmed in the movie? While we were in Kraków, several classical music festivals were taking place. A small group of us went to see a Mahler concert in one of the churches. The music was overwhelming, especially with the acoustics of the church. I can still hear it right now; it was truly amazing.

After this we decided to have dinner in the Jewish quarter where we were welcomed by dancers with fireballs on chains; totally different from Mahler but also amazing. At night the Jewish Quarter transforms into a buzzing area where you can enjoy performances, have great food and drink in the numerous restaurants and bars and enjoy the nice evenings while sipping your vodka on the street. It was time to try more excellent Polish specialities: Barszcz, a soup of beetroot with a croquette and (of course) Pierogi, small envelopes of dough filled with meet or vegetables. Again we ended up in a great bar where we met another group of stagiaires and danced in the basement till we got outside and it was already light.

Sunday was a day of rest. We walked a little bit in the town and tried to get tickets to the ballet, which almost led us out of the city, only to return empty-handed. Some of the trainees went to another concert in a church while others (me) were exhausted and had some much needed rest. There was one Polish dish that I hadn't tried yet; the fast-food of Poland – Zapiekanka, a baguette with loads of cheese and mushrooms that will fill your stomach for a very long time. Of course we ended our last evening with drinks in the Jewish Quarter, in the Singer Café, where the tables are famously made of sewing machines.

On Monday I was determined to do the other walking tour the guides offered through the city centre of Kraków. After that it was really time to say goodbye to Kraków, a beautiful city with a very rich history but at the same time a sort of calmness that makes you want to stay forever…

As you can see this is a basic account of what we (I) did in Poland... So I’d like to invite all my fellow travel buddies to share their experiences and post their anecdotes below! Some of you visited the mountains near Kraków, others did things in the mornings despite all the partying and of course there must also be some juicy gossip... So feel free to comment and add to this report!

A final word though has to go out to our own indispensible tour guides: Angela and André! Although from time to time it was quite… exciting trying to catch buses, trains and flights in time, I learned a very valuable lesson: it’ll always turn out fine. No need to worry. Angela in particular made sure nobody was abandoned and André made sure there was always something to drink :) – a great combination! Thanks to you two and also to the rest of the Stage Committee! Looking forward to seeing you all at a Polish dinner sometime soon?!?

Michelle Heuer,

DG ELARG