Wednesday 11/28/2007- Saturday 12/1/2007:
After watching the sunrise and somewhat falling asleep, we passed into Slovak Republic! We got new stamps, and we enjoyed the scenery of Katie’s mother land. We stopped in Banska Bystrica for ‘lunch’ which consisted of chips and we got back on the road for Poland. After driving through the Slovak and Polish Alps, we made our way into Krakow. Our apartment was only about a 5 minute walk from the train/bus station, and we were able to get in with little problems (after pressing all of the call buttons…)
We got settled and headed out to Nostalgia for authentic polish cuisine, potato pancakes and pierogi. And just our luck, we stumbled onto another holiday fair, so we warmed up with hot, mulled wine and got into the holiday spirit. We also stopped into the biggest bookstore in the square to buy the trusty “Krakow in your pocket” guide and an Egypt lonely planet book.
Our first full day in Krakow started with a tour of the city, featuring Pope John Paul II’s apartment where he previously resided. We got to see the athletic pope’s skis and jersey collection. We attempted to visit the salt mines, but missed the bus, so we continued to tour around the beautiful streets of Krakow. We also found the Polish Fiat, “Maluch” and rewarded ourselves with dinner at a music club, which should really just stick to music.
We started the day excited to meet up with Dermot’s college professor in town for a conference. We stopped for a drink to warm us up at Café Camelot, which came highly recommended from both Wojtek and the NY Times. We toured Kazimierz, the Jewish Quarter of Krakow. Our first stop, of course, was to Bagelmama for an authentic treat. We both agreed that the bagels took us back to NY. We saw all the sites from the old synagogue to the new cemetery, and you could feel the eerie presence from about 50 year ago. Before long, we got a text message (thanks Italian cell phone!) from Dermot’s professor, and we met up with him at the main square. Since Wojtek was originally from Krakow, he took us to a local restaurant, where we got to sample several of poland’s finest dishes. We started with lard and bread, which of course was very tasty yet hardly good for you. Next, we had baked sheep’s cheese, followed by pierogi and our entrees. Katie couldn’t pass up another chance for Grandma’s Haloopkis, Dermot tried potato pancakes with pork stew and Wojtek had wiener schnitzel. We exchanged many stories about traveling and Wojtek gave us the inside, local scoop on many aspects of Poland and Krakow.
After our quick visit, we caught our bus to Wieliczka to visit the infamous salt mines www.kopalnia.pl. We had perfect timing, and joined the last English tour of the day. Three plus hours long, we followed our robot-esque tour guide down 400+ feet to see how salt was mined up until 1970’s. Of the many caves and underground cities we have visited, this cave was the most impressive. The many rooms boasted chapels, homes, banquet halls and Kaplica Kingi, largest underground chapel built in 1862. We loaded into the scary elevator and made our way back up to the top. We grabbed the bus back into town, and we headed to the Carrefour for groceries for dinner.
Our last morning was filled with French toast, pasta, tea and pretty much eating, eating and more eating of the last of our groceries. We left our bags at the bus station and toured around Krakow one last time. We got to see and hear the bugle sound one last time from the top of St Mary’s church. There are 12 fire fighters that play the bugle hourly to commemorate the brave man who sounded his bugle to warn locals of an army attack. Sadly, the bugle player’s song was ended abruptly, as an arrow pierced him dead in the throat.
We made our way back to the bus station and caught our bus back to Budapest. Rather uneventful, minus the fact that the bus drivers (both older gentlemen) had bladders the size of camels, as we did not stop once in 6 hours. We finally asked them to stop, and Dermot and Katie made a mad rush to the facilities.