Close proximity of historic districts in Krakow make it a true walking city, and we've stayed committed to using our feet to get around instead of giving in to other means of transport. In the process, the uniques aspects of the neighborhoods have been revealed to us daily as we venture out for food or to visit points of interest. Motorists in Krakow are by far more considerate of pedestrians than anywhere else we’ve walked in the past couple of months—we’ve looked forward to our daily strolls even as the temperature has dropped and the rain has continued intermittently.
Our apartment in the sky is located on the edge of the Jewish Quarter, and we’ve spent most of our time in Krakow exploring the winding streets of this storied section of town. The sun made a glorious appearance yesterday in the midst of a bright blue autumn sky when we set out to visit the former factory owned by Oskar Schindler during World War II. The abandoned, state-owned factory was purchased by the city and transformed into a museum with the help of European Union Funding and opened to the public in 2010. Our forty-five minute walk cut right through the middle of the Jewish Quarter and led across the Vistula river to the industrial section of Krakow. The low angle of the sun and forty-degree temperature motivated us to walk briskly, and it felt good to be outdoors taking part in the flow of the district.
The museum’s website indicated that booking tickets was a necessity, so I had signed us up for a guided tour of the museum, but we missed our group by about five minutes and wondered if our tardiness had wrecked the afternoon. Turned out the opposite was true as we walked up to the ticket counter, purchased a family pass for twelve dollars, and spent the next two hours immersed in one of the finest interpretive museums we’ve experienced. The exhibit covered the majority of the building's square footage and was centered on life in Krakow from 1939 to 1945 with particular focus on the Jewish Community.
Put simply, life in Krakow during that period was base, brutal, and bleak. Nazi occupation demoralized the citizens and decimated the Jewish population through confinement, exploitation, and eventually extermination. We learned about the savage Plaszow concentration camp built in the area of Schindler’s factory and the small annex of barracks he assembled for his Jewish workers. The museum’s collection of Nazi memorabilia and hand-written accounts from imprisoned Jews was impressive and chilling. Oskar Schindler is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews by employing them in his factory and protecting them during the time of Nazi occupation. We were captivated by the museum’s film which included several of Schindler’s workers who survived the war and recounted memories of their benefactor with reverence.
After we completed our self-guided tour, we agreed that our time in museum was compelling and informative. While nearly all of the history we’ve learned about Krakow during the war years has been somber, the fact that there are over 7,000 descendants of Schindler’s Jewish workers living in the world testifies to the goodness that prevails in the face of relentless evil. Crossing the bridge back over the Vistula river, we walked facing a stiff wind coming off the churning water below. We entered the heart of the Jewish Quarter thankful again for our own freedom and sad for those whose lives were destroyed at the hands of vicious outsiders.
School on a rainy day
The temperatures stayed in the 40s, and a misty rain returned; so we spent our last day in Krakow hanging around the flat reading and doing schoolwork. We had a reservation at the Underground Museum for 5:30, so we had plenty of time to go to the grocery store and start cleaning the apartment in preparation for our departure the next morning. At 4:30, we started walking in a light drizzle and enjoyed passing by the Wawel Castle one last time on our way to the Old Town. Despite the dreary weather, the market square was busy, but we made it to the Underground Museum right on time unaware of the the spectacle we we about to experience.
In 2005 when archaeologists dug up half of the market square in order to investigate the history of the area, they found a treasure trove of ruins, graves, and artifacts that are now displayed in a museum under the reconstructed plaza. This place was astounding, and we spent two hours wandering dimly-lit passageways viewing nine-hundred years of history in the form of ancient cobblestone streets, stone market stalls, settlement foundations, jewelry, and skeletons still in their graves. The holes in several skulls gave evidence to people submitting to trepanation, and the position and binding of several other bodies showed that vampire burial procedures were followed because….well, because vampires can be a real problem. We ascended from the museum brimming with new knowledge about the history of this fascinating city in Poland, and the learning process stoked our appetites.
12th century version of a BC powder
No vampires here
Layers of history
We celebrated our last night in Krakow with a pizza dinner in a restaurant right off the market square where we were seated next to a table full energetic young men. Judging from the number of empty glasses on the table, they had been there awhile. I think they were geography students because it sounded like they were discussing the Falkland Islands in a rich Scottish brogue during our entire dinner. Nevertheless, the pizza was delicious, and we walked back to our apartment and climbed 100 steps one last time.
Our pace was much slower in Krakow, and even though the rains came during the nine days we were in Poland, our goals were not hindered, and we we able to successfully test our gear against the elements. Due to the inexpensive cost of living, we were able to experience local cuisine more often, and all the walking and stair climbing helped burn off the extra calories. Other than our hired transport to Auschwitz, we walked to our destinations the entire time and enjoyed getting the feel of the neighborhoods as we discovered the rich and often tragic history of this resilient eastern European city. Budapest awaits, and as we prepare to move on, here’s a few random thoughts about Krakow and Poland:
As an American, I’m used to seeing a diverse population with many skin colors and cultural representation everywhere in my city and in the places to which I travel in my country. In our time in the Czech Republic and Poland over the past eighteen days, I have seen only white people.
In 1939, there were over three million Jews living in Poland—there are around five thousand today.
The Old Town market square in Krakow is vast and colorful with 1,000 years of history on display in every corner. The trumpeter, on duty for a twelve-hour shift, signals the passing of time from the belfry of Saint Mary’s Cathedral with a five-note tuneful blast in each cardinal direction continuing a six-hundred-year-old tradition.
The neighborhoods in and around the Old Town and Jewish Quarter are defined by continuous rows of five-story buildings stacked with shops on the bottom and apartments on the top, broken up by street junctions and the occasional church or government facility. The buildings are finished with time-worn stucco in drab shades of grey and brown, but areas of exposed brick from the peeling facades provide compelling blotches of color and a rustic sentiment.
Traditional Polish food is based on meats in slow-simmered sauces; potatoes fried into crunchy cakes; dumplings filled with cheese, meat, and potatoes; and vegetables marinated in vinegar. There are other variables, but the main staples show up on every plate, and a combination of all principal Polish foods shared by a hungry American family in a cozy restaurant on a cold weeknight in Krakow is a blessed event.
Alcoholic beverages are sold in prevalent stores advertising “alkohole” which may be a combination of the words used to describe a fermented beverage and the word used to describe someone who has consumed an over-abundance thereof; i.e., “Watch out for Krzysztof at the party tonight—when he gets into the vodka he’s a real alkahole.” Try saying it with a Count Dracula accent for authentic cultural emphasis.
Every purchase in Krakow becomes a battle of wills as cashiers only give coins and bills with small denominations in change as a last resort. Say something costs 85zl, and you hand the cashier a 100zl note expecting 15zl in return. The cashier will expect you and every member of your party to empty all pockets until a 5zl coin is found and a 20zl note can be rendered as change. Americans used to be able to do this type of exchange in the States to avoid building up pocket change until cashiers lost all grasp of this simple concept.
A few days ago, Deena and I trudged many blocks in the cold rain to the neighborhood laundromat and found it to be clean and warm with clear instructions written in several languages. This productive clothes-washing excursion was our middle-age equivalent to an evening in a nightclub except cheaper and more fun.
Sounds like ya'll had fun here regardless of all the rain!
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