Krakow for Easter

A while back we decided to take advantage of some cheap flights and get our first taste of Eastern Europe...and finally Easter arrived and with it some much needed holidays. We arrived at our hotel in Krakow late Friday afternoon only to find that due to a dozen blokes on a stag do trashing a whole lot of hotel rooms we needed to move to another hotel - fortunately our new hotel was closer to the centre of town so things actually worked out quite well for us.

We headed into the main square and despite the cold were pleasantly surprised at the pretty square filled with lots of market stalls. Since it was 4pm and we hadn’t eaten lunch yet, we quickly set ourselves up with some mulled wine and barbequed meat with mustard and watched the world go by. After checking out the stalls and shops we explored some of the backstreets, only to find a cute bar serving some more mulled wine (much needed to warm us up again :)) and sat back enjoying our pre-dinner drink.

The mulled wine stall is in the barrel to the left, while the sausage stall was doing a roaring trade

Sarah by the 'cloth hall' in the main square

One of many cute little bars in the city

The next day our driver came to pick us up and take us out to Auschwitz/Birkenau and the salt mines. Once at Auschwitz we signed up for an english speaking tour to get the most out of our visit. Auschwitz was actually originally built and used as Polish military barracks – and once the war started was initially used to house Polish political prisoners. To look as it is not as grim as Birkenau (converted horse stables) – in fact to look at it didn’t really look like a prison (except for the barbed wire) until you looked inside the rooms at the inhumane conditions. It is hard to get a sense of the magnitude of the crime until we saw the tonnes of remaining hair, shoes and suitcases meant to be sold in Germany.

The main entrance to Auschwitz - the German words mean 'Work will make you free'

The main fence at Auschwitz - prisoner accommodation on the left side, guards on the right

The main gate to Birkenau, where the trainloads of Jews would come in to be processed

The living conditions inside a hut in the concentration camp

Looking out across the extent of Birkenau, each of the chimneys represent the remains of another hut

Unfortunately, we never made our Salt Mine excursion (with no notice the Salt Mines decided to close up early due to Easter L) however managed to go and check out the Palace in Krakow instead (Wawel). It was another impressive Palace, but unlike the legend, there were no dragons to be seen.

The grand square at Wawel Castle

We returned to the main square late in the afternoon, only to find we were able to visit the main Cathedral in Krakow – and it was very spectacular! Beautiful painted ceilings, impressive stained glass windows and statues. Unlike every other Cathedral we have visited so far this one was really colourful. We got a real sense of how alive religion is in Krakow – not just with Cathedrals marking what seemed like every block, but also the large number of attendees (although it did help that it was Easter).

Krakow cathedral - every hour a bugler appears in the left hand tower and plays a song, which is cut off half way through to remember a bugler who was killed by the Tartars hundreds of years ago

For dinner that evening we decided it was time to check out the local cuisine – ‘Pierogi’ or ‘dumplings’. I would describe them as being the Polish equivalent to the Chinese dumplings you get at yum cha. Over dinner we shared a plate of meat filled dumplings and a plate of cottage cheese and potato dumplings – and boy they were really good!! Dessert was strawberry filled dumplings served with natural yoghurt, not as sweet as I imagined they would be but also very good. We finished the night with a cocktail at the local jazz bar – loved the surroundings which has been elaborately done in the most unique way, and which we later learnt, seemed to be a common theme amongst the café/bar’s of Krakow.

Near the walls and gate-tower of the old town

Our final day in Krakow, Easter Sunday, was spent doing not much (and given that since relaxing Sarah had managed to get sick again was probably a good thing!) But a word of warning for those traveling to Krakow – Easter Sunday is not such a good tourist day with virtually everything being closed. But we managed to find café that was tucked away and for the first time since I can remember spent the day sipping tea, blowing my nose and watching the world go by…