Poland - Krakow

My flight to Krakow, Poland left at 6:10 a.m. so Madelein, Robyn and I left the farm at 1:30 a.m. to drive up to Stansted Airport for our 4:10 a.m. check-in. I passed along the midnight orphan feeding to Henry in favour of sleeping for a couple of hours before leaving.

(For the record, "Krakow" is pronounced "KRA-koof". People would look at me like I'm crazy if I said it that way outside Poland, but I just wanted to set the record straight.)

When the passport control officer finished asking me what I'm doing in Poland, how long I'll be there, where I'm going, and I provided proof of return to England, I saw the officer reach for her stamp. My stamp from my arrival in Italy was faded and barely legible - a huge disappointment. I wasn't about to let that happen on my first trip to Poland so I said as sweetly as possible, "Um, this trip is really important to me because I'm half Polish so could you please make sure the stamp is really clear." The officer didn't even acknowledge I'd said anything, but by the deliberate way she stamped my passport I knew she heard me. She passed it back across the counter to me with a cold face and I gave her a big grin and said, "Thank you!" and she gave me a huge smile. Nice to know that border guards are people too!

Proof I've been to Poland!

We dropped our backpacks at Mama's Hostel (we booked into a four-bed dorm room but the staff didn't book anyone else into the room so we had our own space for the weekend) and walked to the main square to check out the indoor and outdoor markets and explore the city.

Lots of flower stalls with posies ready for Easter baskets.

Indoor market with lots of amber jewelry and cheesy tourist trinkets.

I saw this crazy beer advertisement all over the place when we walked around Krakow. I thought it was pretty funny and the girls would say, "Hey, Amanda! It's your beer guy!"

After spending five days surrounded by sheep, I started noticing them everywhere. I think one of the strangest things was hearing them at the oddest times. I would hear "baaing" in my mind as I fell asleep at night. I heard the same sound in children whining, laughter across a plaza, women calling out to each other... so bizarre.

Robyn broke her arm in Switzerland and is very ready to have the cast removed. We all loved the Polish food and had fun trying out a few different dishes at a market kiosk.

Church door detail.

Wawel Hill Castle.

We had seen a lot of dragon souveniers in Krakow and were curious about the connection to the city. At the castle we decided to skip paying for access to the various exhibits, but it was really cheap to get access to the dragon's cave so we decided to buy tickets. We hoped there would be information about the dragon legend but no information was provided. After descending a long spiral staircase we arrived in the cave and - much to our disappointment - there was no fake dragon breathing fire or scaring us in the dark corners. It was still a beautiful cave and we had fun shooting photos of us making ridiculous monster faces.

Posing as monsters in the cave since none were provided for our amusement.

A fire-breathing dragon sculpture outside the cave alongside the river.

When we left the cave we were at river level and decided to walk along the river to reach the Jewish Quarter. We discovered delightful sights such as a little girl drawing with chalk on the sidewalk and not-so-delightful sights like an old man sunbathing in his underwear.

A chalk drawing of the castle, complete with fair maiden and fire-breathing dragon.

Truly speechless.
Really... I can't think of anything to put as a caption.
We joked around later and said that Robyn and Madelein should have gone and laid down on each side of him for the photo, just to see what he would do. My guess is he would have looked up with squinting eyes and just laid back down again.

Yes, even Poland has beautiful door knobs. If a country has interesting door knobs or door knockers, trust me... I'll find them.

The sun was shining and we got pretty hot walking along the river and through the Jewish Quarter. We tried to find ice cream, even back-tracking when we saw several people walk past with recently purchased ice cream cones, but we never found a shop!

Dinner was purchased at a 24-hour pierogi shop. I love the food in Poland! It's also incredibly cheap - a whole plate of food can be purchased for less than $7.00 CAD.

Robyn and Madelein have been all over the world so I was curious to see what kind travellers they would be. I really didn't know them very well at all so I wasn't sure if they'd drive me crazy or I'd drive them crazy, but I figured a weekend trip was a safe way to find out. Thankfully they're into the same things as me when travelling - see the key historic sites, skip all or most of the museums, eat the local food, try out the language, keep things cheap whenever possible, use decent accommodation, and shoot lots of photos.