A beautiful compact city with an amazing if sad modern history (Krakow)

Member Name: lm09

Product:	Krakow
Date:	09/03/09 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Outside the Euro Zone so great value for you pound

Disadvantages: None

I visited Krakow in September 2008. My intention was to travel solo through Poland to Lithuania where is was to firstly meet up with my wife and then secondly run the Vilnius marathon before flying home from Vilnius.

Having travelled pretty extensively around Europe I have to be honest and say that prior to my trip Poland never really had much appeal. In fact to be honest it was a country that I knew next to nothing about.

I arrived in Krakow via a cheap and un-cheerful Ryanair flight. To be honest though for £60 return I don't care if the air stewardess eyeballs me when I unpack my own provisions for the flight. The airport, John Paul II airport is about 10 kilometres from the centre of Krakow. First tip for you, rather than wait for a bus to take you to the railway line (the easiest and cheapest way into town) you can walk. It takes about a minute. Trains into Krakow centre cost about £0.50p.

On arrival at Krakow central station I consulted my Lonely Planet Poland book (an essential to any Polish trip) and decided although Krakow is a small city, to get a taxi to my hotel. The central station is in the north of the city and marks the northern boundary of places to go in Krakow. To the north is just soviet style housing complexes. So hailing taxis on the street! As every Lonely Planet will tell you is a bad idea and an invitation to get ripped off. Well not in Krakow. My taxi driver gave me a quick tour and then dropped me at the door of my hostel all for about £5. That would be the only time I would need to use any other transport to see the city.

At this point all prices will be referred to as Polish zloty with the rate at the time of my visit £1 = 4.8zl.

My hostel, yes hostel (first time for me), was in the Kazimierz district slightly south of the castle. The hostel, the Secret Garden was an amazing find (much nicer and better than my hotel is Warsaw - Warsaw review to come). For less than £25 a night I had a double room which although had no bathroom was right next door to one. The ratio of rooms to bathrooms is about 3 to 1 so unless the hostel is in full tilt and packed you are never going to meet anyone whilst washing or otherwise. The rooms are as basic as can be with no television or phone facilities. The beds really clean and comfortable. In a communal living room there was a massive flat screen television and two free and modern internet terminals. If you are in Krakow I would 100% stay here.

Right then so out and about. Well the first and most obvious place to start is Wawel hill, home to the castle and Cathedral. Turning right out of the hostel it is only about a two minute walk until I reached the banks of the Vistula River, the river I would follow up to Warsaw. In Krakow this river is almost neglected to the south of the town centre but its banks are full of joggers, bikers and skaters. It is a really pleasant space on the late summer day to stroll to the castle.

So no surprises with a name like Wawel Hill the castle is up a hill. The walk up though not steep and only about two minutes. Once on top you get great views to the south and East of the city. The castle itself one of the symbols of Poland was the seat of the Polish royals for some 500 years until in the 17th century power shifted northwards to Warsaw. I had no real interest in visiting the chambers of the castle (15zl) my time was so valuable in Krakow.

I did go into the Cathedral (10zl) which is ornate if unspectacular. It houses to tombs of many of Poland's great and good. The real reason for my trip into the Cathedral though was to climb the tower. The climb to the tower was the only place in Poland I felt I was on a mass tourist route. It was very busy. The views from the top via the 70 steps are amazing and well worth the climb.

So the easiest way down the hill and quickest to get into the town centre is down through 'Dragons Den'. Dragons Den (3zl) takes you down from Wawel hill to a cave complex said to be the home of the Krakow dragon - the symbol of the city. As you exit the cave system back onto the banks of the Vistula you encounter a large bronze dragon which spits fire, great to photograph against a blue sky.

So from the castle it is just a short stroll across the Planty (a park that pretty much encircles the old town). The old town itself in truth, with the exception of the main square has no massive stand out buildings. The beauty of Krakow though is that every building together forms a beautiful maze of broad mostly pedestrianised streets that are perfect to just wonder.

It doesn't take long on a wonder before you arrive in the main Market Square (Rynek Glowny), the largest medieval town square in Europe, and you are immediately drawn to the massive building at the centre. The Cloth Hall is probably the image you will have seen in the tourist brochures for Krakow. It truly is a massive building impossible from anywhere in the square to fit onto one photograph. The hall was re-built in its Renaissance style in the 16th century and added to later in the 19th. It was the towns and region principle trading hall and today is still used as a trading hall selling all manner of tourist tat.

There is always something going on in the square to entertain. On the dates of my trip was the inter-Poland marching band competition in which marching bands and troops of marching dancers seemed to display from about 12om to 6pm.

The other massive structure in Rynek Glowny in the massive church to the east of the square. The Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady (6zl) is far more impressive than the cathedral. Word of warning here, you are now bang in the middle of tourist Krakow. The begging Roma women her are amongst the most persistent beggars I have ever encountered anywhere even prepared to follow you into the church. You need a very firm almost aggressive no to shake them off.

The highlight of the Basilica has to be the massive altarpiece which opens like a book in the morning. At 11 meters tall and about 8 wide it is a massive piece with amazing detail.

After finding somewhere to eat is pretty much day one done and after a slow wander back to the hostel through the old town soaking up the atmosphere of Krakow's street life it was time to sleep.

The next day I was up early (I love getting up at first light to photograph). Also I wanted to catch the first train to Auschwitz to get there before this site got to busy. Having a better layout of the city and not carrying my suitcase it was only about a 20 minute walk back through the old town to the station. The first train to Auschwitz leaves at 6.20am (12zl) and takes an hour to get to Auschwitz. Read my Auschwitz review for more detail. If you are in Krakow you really do have to go to Auschwitz, it is an incredible site that will move you forever.

Oh breakfast to something I loved was a round kind of donut shaped roll or dry tasting bread with poppy seeds. You will see these sold everywhere around the station and with a coffee you can have a filling tasty breakfast for about 3zl.

Having returned from Auschwitz I planned to spend time in the Jewish quarter of town. The film Schindlers List was mostly about the Jewish community of Krakow and the prison of war camp that features is that of Plaszow 5 kilometres south of Krakow. This camp though was almost entirely destroyed by the fleeing Nazi's.

The Jewish quarter (200 meters) from the Secret Garden hostel features many of the main areas of the film. The main square now called Peace Square is where role call was called in the film. The square now has oversized hollow wooden chairs used to represent the material goods left behind by the Jews of the ghetto before. Having just returned from Auschwitz the square is a weird place to be. It is impossible not to be moved again to be standing on a site of such barbaric modern history.

On the south side of Peace Square is the Pharmacy Under the Eagle. Through the work and dedication of Tadeusz Pankiewicz this pharmacy was allowed to remain open right up until the liquidation of the ghetto's. Her Tadeusz provided free medication to the Jews of the ghetto and the pharmacy became an important centre for information sharing.

Another site I wanted to see but would not recommend that you don't both is Oscar Schindlers factory. The actual factory does still stand but it is wholly un-impressive and a waste of 20 minutes to get to.

Well the above then gives you some of the highlights of my trip to Krakow. I did one other excursion to the famous Wielicza salt mines, seen as a modern wonder of the wonder, an easy half day trip from Krakow. You can this under separate review.

In set off the next day of the first train to Warsaw. I will write up Warsaw soon and will compare the two cities in more depth then. For now though Krakow is a tourist city like say York which is easy to navigate and easy to love. Warsaw is a sprawling working city, like Manchester or Birmingham that takes more work. Krakow was the perfect introduction to Poland but for me I love, absolutely love Warsaw. Having opened up saying I knew very little of the history of Poland the history of Warsaw is like no other city of earth.

On that point two really good books if you are interested in Poland and its history. The first new out last year in hard back and only now in paperback is 'A country in the moon' by Michael Moran which covers both his travelling experience of Poland but also the history of the nation. The other book whilst only has small sections of Poland but is an amazing read of 20th century Europe is 'In Europe' by Geert Mak.

As for Krakow though 3 nights was plenty for me. This allowed me time to get to Auschwitz and the salt mines without feeling I had rushed anything. Krakow is a beautiful city full of beautiful people. The atmosphere is so relaxed and stress free.

It is the perfect city to get away from Britain for a weekend. A place to feel very foreign whilst feeling very safe and stress free.

Summary: A great introduction to Poland. A perfect weekend destination.