So, about a week and a half ago, I committed myself to go to Poland this past weekend. Talk about a whimsical adventure. I went with Matt and then three people we met through the NYU program in Cesky Krumlov; Henry, Michelle, and Stephanie.
We found our hostel relatively easily and it was superb.
It was only $11 per night and they gave us breakfast, a polish salad (more about that later), homemade lemon vodka, and one of the girls that worked there took us out (throughout the trip, of course). Also, they had the radio on at most hours. It was amazing. If you ever go to Krakow, stay at Zodiakus. Best hostel I've stayed at yet.
First of all, we took the night train. It costed us only about 95kc for a roundtrip ticket. That's crazy talk in this continent. We spent half of the ride bouncing off the walls with excitement for the trip and the fact that we were sitting in our own cabin with 6 shelves as beds. It was the first time that I truly felt like I was back-packing around Europe on a college-student-budget.
Amazing.
We finally felt exhausted enough to sleep around 1:30am. Therefore, I climbed up to the highest bed and cozied myself up to the cheap blankets. A few hours later, we heard a tapping on the door. We were 20 minutes away. The train sort of lulls you to sleep. It was peaceful... well, except for when we sat at a train station for an hour or so. Actually, at one point, we were wating for at least 30 minutes, but when we started moving again, we were moving in the opposite direction. I don't understand but we made it to Krakow with perfect timing.
Anyways, we got there around 7am, ate breakfast, then napped in the common room until our room was ready (around 9am). We settled in and headed out around the city. We decided to hop onto a free tour of Krakow but I don't think we stayed for even 1/4 of it because we ditched it about an hour in. Three hours later, we ran into the tour group at the castle. It was silly. We hid from the tour guide so that he wouldn't judge us.
So after we saw beautiful views of the river and the city, we decided to indulge in Polish treats. This wasn’t actually a decision we had planned. We were walking past a treat shop when we discovered it and without discussion, we all walked it. Each of us ordered something different and then shared with the rest. The Polish women that worked there were real nasty. They refused to give me forks so I forced Henry to use his charm and wit to get them. He came back with only 2. Despite Matt being on antibiotics for tonsillitis, we all dug in feverishly.
When we ditched the tour, we got lunch at a Thai restaurant. Overall, it was unimpressive but we weren't hungry afterward. We continued on our own tour around Poland. We went up to the castle and walked around. Great views and better opportunities to take pictures. You see, Henry and Michelle have been playing this game all over Europe where they take pictures in the exact same pose as another tourist. They call it "posing with friends," and I got to join in, too.
We continued our adventure around the Jewish Quarter. Actually, we had intended to see Schindler’s Factory [Schindler’s List], however we arrived 5 minutes after the last tour started. Don’t worry, that didn’t slow us down.
Next stop was back to the hostel for Traditional Polish Salad night! Sounds delicious right? Err, wrong. Well, if I’m being honest, I didn’t mind it. I owe my adventurous taste-testing to my mother’s adventurous cooking (Thanks Mom). Everyone else, however, were left unsatisfied. Henry took one bite and then started to bribe us to eat it for him. I know it’s considered rude if you don’t eat someone’s food in America, but for some reason I feel like it’s 10x more extreme here. Anyway, we ended up splitting up the leftover salad on all of our plates to make it look like we each tried some and then went to go get a substantial dinner close by.
The restaurant we chose apparently had the best pierogies, but that didn’t really matter because OUR HOST WORE WHITE GLOVES. Isn’t that cool? The food was, overall, nothing special. Well, except Matt’s. He got salmon pasta and it tasted like barbeque and death. That's pretty special.
After dinner, we wondered around looking for a place to hang out. We ended up at a place that the hostel recommended called Alchemia (I think). The environment was awesome. There were basically two candle sticks as the only light and all the booths were wooden. Combined with the rooms filled with people and the cheap beer, we were enjoying ourselves. We were real tired after only a few drinks, so we headed back to the hostel and called it a night.
On Saturday, we went back to Schindler’s Factory. I’m really glad we went back because I really – I don’t want to say “enjoyed” because no one enjoys the Holocaust, but I benefitted from the experience. The museum was extremely well done and effective. It was structured in a timeline format and each room had a completely different environment. So, when the Nazi’s invaded Poland with their propaganda, we walked through a room that was everything-swastika, even the floors. When the city was destroyed, we walked through a cave with a soft ground. It opened up to a gravel room. In a display, there were items in the gravel like eyeglasses and buttons. The whole museum was such an experience.
Afterward, we went to a bagel shop called Bagel Mama. Apparently, Henry, Michelle, and Stephanie read about it in wiz-air magazine on the airplane. It was owned by an American. I enjoyed my first tuna melt since I left the states. Mmm, tuna melts.
The next stop was a market area we found. It was cooler than any markets I have been to in Prague because the items were legit. I mean old jewelry, nazi badges, vintage clothing. You had to bargain prices, too. I wanted to get something but couldn’t bring myself to pay 11 zloties for a necklace.
Which brings me to the topic of sluts. The money that Poland uses is called “zloty.” Therefore, a ticket on the bus, let’s say, would be 3 zloties. To make things easier for us, we chose to just say 3 sluts. Everything became slutty real quick. We were passing sluts around all weekend.
Okay, I’m finished being immature. We took the public bus to the famous salt mine about 20 minutes away in Wieliczka. I love public transportation. We got there and paid about 50 sluts to see it. That would be about $17. For a two-hour tour really far below the surface of the Earth (I can’t be specific because I couldn’t convert the measure they use here to something I could understand), it was pretty cheap. Apparently, we only saw 1% of the salt mine, too. These miners were something else though. They’ve been digging in this mine for centuries. They carved statues to prove it. Also, there were salt chapels. We had a really good time here. The highlight of this place, though, was when we spent a solid 20 minutes making salt puns such as “carpe so-dium” or “I’m bitter about that experience.”
We bebopped back to Krakow with time to spare before dinner. Everyone split up at one point. Stephanie had a skype-date, Michelle and I went back to the hostel for a power nap, while the boys went on a bro-walk. That’s code for bonding. Eventually we met back up and the boys took us to a Latin restaurant they discovered during bonding. Michelle wasn’t feeling well, so we had to leave her behind.
Sucks, cause dinner was delectable. I had a massive child-sized burrito. Everyone else had fruit-stuff meat, which apparently tasted like 5 stars and was priced at 3. It was so great that we decided to return again the next night before the meal was over. We shared crème brulee and chocolate mousse. Also, this was my first experience with chili chocolate. Chili chocolate, for those who don’t know, is spicy. I do not recommend anyone to try this unless you have a stuffy nose. It’s not worth it.
I forgot to mention that this was vodka-night at the hostel and they were going to take everyone out to different clubs around Krakow. We all took lemon vodka shots before we left. Actually, we took two because Alicja (the girl that worked there) claims that it is tradition to take a shot whenever someone leaves. It was delicious.
After dinner, we found everyone still at the hostel even though it was past the time that they were going to go out. Alicja insisted to take us to her favorite café/pub. Im glad she came with us because we had a great time in this hidden place. In Poland, people drink their beers with syrup and straws. Punks. While we were hanging out with Alicja, her sister showed up with her boyfriend. Her TWIN sister. Twins freak me out. They were wearing the exact same thing, too. It was funny because when I pointed that out to them, they looked at each and as if on cue, they both laughed at the exact same moment, at the exact same pitch.
We spent most of the time there playing “True or False,” but it was the Polish version and Alicja couldn’t figure out how to translate all of them into Englis. We talked a lot about the differences between Poland and America, Poland and Prague. Poland is actually very, very similar to Prague. I was talking to Ladislav about this today and he said that they have almost identical histories, even with the same king at one point. However, Poland is a lot more religious for some reason.
We didn’t stay out very late because as Henry said, “I don’t want to be hungover for Auschwitz.”
We were picked up the next morning for Auschwitz. It is about an hour drive outside of Krakow, but there was a tour that organized the whole thing for us. I was bonding with a girl from Leeds on the way. When we finally got there, the mood suddenly changed. Everyone became very tense. We walked around the main Auschwitz area for two hours. We saw the famous gate that says, “Work Will Set You Free.” We also saw the torture chambers and a gas chamber. Most of the main camp became an exhibit. I didn’t realize this until I took a tour, but there were a lot of different parts to Auschwitz.
After a short break, we went to Auschwitz-Birkenou, which is the main death camp. It was a bus-trip away, though. This part of the camp was completely preserved the way it was after the war. Most of the buildings collapsed, but there were a few that we could walk in. We saw the bathroom and the building that they slept in. There were two parts, though, where I was really moved: when we were standing on the platform where they decided the fate of each person (fit or not fit), and when we were standing beside the gas chamber ruins. When the Nazis realized they were about to lose the war, they destroyed the gas chambers in hopes of covering up the plot.
Overall, the whole experience was really powerful. I needed to recoup afterwards. We got back to Krakow and were starving. As promised, we went back to Manzana. We thought we could get away with going a second night, but our waitress recognized us (even though she wasn’t our waitress the first night). Henry kept talking about these street sandwiches you can buy and how badly he wanted one before we left. I told him I would split one with him so we did “for dessert.” When we got back to the hostel, Henry tried some Polish sour soup, too. That kid had to have been stuffed afterwards.
I forgot to mention that on our walk back, we met another American. This guy seemed so normal and legit and then he slips it in that he's an opera singer. He sang for us... in the middle of Poland. At 10PM. So funny.
We left Krakow around 10:30PM on Sunday via the night train again. This time, we shared our cabin with a man named Steve from Manchester. He was real friendly, but he went to bed right away, so the rest of us felt obligated to do the same. By 11:30PM, I was out. However, I kept waking up and looking out the window because it was beautiful.
The guy on the returning train wasn’t as nice as the first one because he unlocked our door, turned on our lights and said, “GET UP!” Oy. We got back to Prague and that was it- the end of our Krakow trip!
Not too shabby, eh? I know it took me forever to get this blog up, but I’ve been a busy bee with the beekeeping class making wax candles and a cooking class. I made a Czech meal from scratch last night. More specifically, I made bread, cheese and carrot spread to go with the bread, a soup that starts with the letter K, and Moravian pie. Yup.
Oh and today I went to a provocative museum. The art is called Decadent Art, which Ladislav informed me meant debauched or disgusting art. Techincally, we went to see a textile exhibit, but a part of the provocative exhibit was on the main floor so we convinced Ladi and Nina to let us go see it. It was… well, provocative. For example, you know those plastic doll sets where you break off the different body parts and put together a doll with accessories? There was a giant one of Jesus on the cross. There was a whole wall of pictures of naked people with piercings in inappropriate places, looking like they are getting tortured and fashion bags over their heads. The display was called “fashion victims.”
The building across the street had the rest of the exhibit. I might have to go see just because it was so interesting.
Okay, okay, I’m done writing my novel.
