Krakow, Poland - July 2, 2008

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Krakow, Poland - July 2, 2008

After arriving in Krakow on our overnight train, we stumbled into the blinding daylight and tried to orient ourselves. Out of a combination of brilliance and luck I had managed to book a hostel that was directly across from the train station and one of the cheapest of our trip. So, for the first and only time on our trip we only dragged our luggage about 10 meters to the Golden Hostel of Krakow. Since it wasn't even 7 am and official check-in was actually noon, we weren't able to check-in, but we could go ahead and leave our luggage. We grabbed a few things out of our bags (and out of my stroke of genious grabbed my sweatshirt), got a train schedule and information about how to get to the salt mines, and headed back to the train station. We had about a thirty or forty minute wait (to grab some breakfast pastries from one of the many vendors) and spent the rest of the time hanging out at a bench in the station. It was a beautiful day and wonderful temperature - I actually enjoyed putting on a sweatshirt over my shirt and shorts outfit.

The train took twenty-five minutes and was a really nice local one. Usually the regional trains are the most trashed/in worst condition. This one was very clean, quiet and smooth. We arrived at the stop and followed the people, hoping we would see a sign telling us where to go. We came upon a big fresh produce stand and decided to buy apples to even out our breakfast -- I remembered from foreign study that Polish produce is all organic and very very yummy, so I was excited. When Poland was integrated into the EU, their produce became very popular throughout Europe and the Polish farmers benefited a great deal from the annexation. On foreign study I would sneak an apple or two every morning to eat during the day. I was glad when Daniel agreed that the apples were really really yummy.

So we followed the signs that pointed to what we thought probably translated to salt mines and were luckily correct. We bought tickets and waited twenty minutes for our English tour. The salt mines have been in use for over 700 years and the mining of salt from these mines only stopped in the past twenty or so years, as they ran out of salt to mine. The mines were all carved with pretty primitive tools - all hand held picks and hammers and reinforced with wood to keep the structure solid.

The mines contain lots of salt sculptures -- some of which were extremely talented. There are several churches inside, including a very large church in which nearly everything is carved from salt -- even the chandeliers were made of special salt crystals. Some neat things about it? If you touched the walls and licked your hands it tasted like salt. And, the air felt really really good to inhale - it was supposed to be especially theraputic for people with allergies or asthma. And after all the second hand smoke we've choked on it felt really good to take nice deep breaths of salty air. We also went down tons and tons of stairs - actually over 800 stairs which took us down over 450 feet. (They have a really crazy, dark, creepy elevator that jets you back up in about 45 seconds).

The salt mines were really neat and massive. We ate at the restaurant at the bottom and had some really really delicious local cuisine. And for being 450 feet under the earth, it was actually priced very well. After our salt mine trip we took the train back, checked into our hotel, showered, and got ready to go back out and explore Krakow's old town.

Now, a lot of what I wanted to see in Krakow are sights that I will be visiting during my teachers program next week, so we really just wanted to check out the vibes of the old town, the local churches, and the Wawel Castle Complex. We were somewhat successful, although by the time we made it down to the Wawel section it was too late to take a tour that day...but it was still neat to check out from the outside and take pictures. We saw lots of evidence of the loving relationship between Pope John Paul II and Krakow - monuments, plaques, pictures all over. Krakow was the biggest Polish city near his birth place, so there were very close ties.

It was really weird to walk around and realize this is the city that contained the Jewish Ghetto from Schindler's List and that Auschwitz was forty-five minutes away.

We enjoyed our day in Krakow - it was a place I would have liked to spend more time, but I actually will be spending more time later on this week. We are spending two and a half more days in the Krakow area during our teacher's program.

We got a good night's sleep and were off to Warsaw... :( the last city of Daniel's trip...