One week break...Krakow, Poland

Krakow, Poland

And so the day has arrived...it was time to leave for our one week break!  Yahoo!  Sarah, Bethany and I were all packed and set to explore.  Our first night we spent in Edinburgh, Scotland at a very nice hotel.  Let me tell you, it was definately nice to sleep on a large bed that was super comfortable, way better than the beds we have at the castle.  Even better, we got a free breakfast that was super delicious with our stay the next morning.  Although it was an early rise for us, we got to the airport with no problems.  As we were waiting in line I started to get a bit nervous.  I'll be honest, I am definately not a fan of flying.  Soon we were checked in and went to our gate.  It was packed so we had to sit on the floor until the gates opened.  Finally our flight was called and it was time to board the plane.  Nerves and excitement began to overwhelm me and continued until we took off. 

The flight seemed very short and in no time we were landing into Krakow!  How exciting, my first time out of England into Europe!  I just wanted to run off that plane and start exploring.  I wish it would have been that easy, but we forgot one major thing.  They spoke Polish, and we knew none! 

After getting our luggage we came to the main gates where we went to an information counter and got a map and talked to a lady who spoke broken English.  Thank goodness, otherwise I fear we may not have known what to do.  She informed us that taxi's would be waiting outside of the airport and all we had to do was go out there and get one.  We took her recommendation and stepped out to catch a cab.  Our cab driver was a man in his mid fifties and spoke very little English as well.  I was happy that I had printed out the information for our hostel so I could tell him the name (not well) as well as point to it.  The cab drive seemed like it took forever, and soon we pulled up to our hostel, and he drove away.  We pushed the button to be allowed in the gate, there was no response.  Tried it again...no response.  Uh oh!  What if we booked a fake hostel began to run through my mind.  Once again I was thankful I printed out information about the hostel so we had a phone number to call.  Figuring out how to call was another task, but finally we succeeded.  The hostel manager answered and told us that she wasn't expecting us till 2pm and that she wouldn't be able to get there till then, it was only 12, so we had two hours to kill.  We decided it was a good idea to go get some cash and try to find something to eat.  We walked to this corner diner and decided it looked like the best deal.  It was Pork or Chicken with a salad, kraut, mashed potatoes, and soup for 10.99 zloty (which is super cheap in USD/Zloty=2.87)  Even better than the cheap factor, they offered student discounts and the food was AMAZING!  We sat there till 2pm and walked to our hostel. 



I thought this was a funny sign
that we found as we walked around

Our hostel was called the Apart Hostel and it was the perfect hostel.  The hostel manager was so friendly and helpful, and the facility was even better.  Clean, safe, and reliable.  The hostel manager even helped us get tickets for Auschwitz as well as arranged a van to come get us and bring us back.  After we got settled in, we decided that we had to go out and see what Krakow had to offer.  We walked down to the Main Market Square.

The Main Market Square is the most important market square in the Old Town portion of Krakow.  This part of town is surrounded by many historical landmarks and places.  In the center is a building known as the Cloth Hall which had to be rebuilt in Renassiance style because of the invasions in 1241. 

On the other side of the Cloth hall there is the Town Hall Tower, which is the only remaining part left of the Old Town Hall.  This town hall was built in a gothic style, including the entrance which is still the original portal, while the helmet was repaired in Baroque style after the previous had been ruined by a fire from a lightening strike.  On either side of the entrance to the tower are two 19th century lions, which I fell in love with.  I am a bit of a cat fanatic, as you will begin to see in my pictures from the rest of the travels on the trips.

Behind the Town Hall Tower stands the Church of St. Adalbert, which is known as one of the odlest stone churches that is left in Poland conscecrated as a church as early as 997.  The history of this small church has roots in the polish Romanesque architecture from the middle ages.  This Romanesque church had to be paritially reconstructed into the baroque style in the 17th century.  Interestingly enough, the romanesque past of this old church wasn't uncovered until restoration of the church in the 19th century took place.

Behind the Cloth Hall is the gothic church known as St. Mary's Basilica.  This church was rebuilt inthe 14th century.  Although we never went into the church, the view from the outside was breakthtaking, well from what I could see through the waves of pigeons that were flying around.  It was absolutely crazy!  Another highlight from this area, was the fake sculpture guy that stood outside the building.  I give him props for doing it, it was cold and rainy, definately not a good day to be standing around not moving!  



Gothic Wawel Castle



St. Peter and Paul Church

After walking around and seeing the sites of Krakow we were pretty tired and decided it would be a good idea for us to find a grocery store and pick up some food and go home.  Let me tell you the grocery store was definately an experience.  We had no idea what anything was, so did the best we could and found chicken and some pasta.  It ended up being very delicious and we were proud of ourselves for figuring out the different kinds of foods they had.  After dinner we called it a night, we had a long day ahead of us in the morning.  We had a feeling Auschwitz was going to take a lot out of us.