Krakow in a day

My friend Susan arrived Friday night, five hours late, without her bags. However, that didn't diminish her excitement about exploring Krakow. Before she collapsed into her bed (it took her 4 flights, and multiple layovers to get here), she said she wanted to get up early the next day and spend it walking everywhere around Krakow.

Which is exactly what we did.

We started off walking through the Planty to the Barbican and then stopped into a church, where I had my first real encounter with a nun (as you've probably guessed, I am fascinated by the nuns everywhere here).

I smiled at an elderly nun sitting in a back pew, and when we were on our way out, she beckoned me over and started speaking to me in Polish. I managed to tell her, in Polish, that I didn't speak Polish, and she seemed very surprised when I told her I spoke English. She was able to say a few words to me, and told me who the patron saints of the church were when I asked. As we left, she blew kisses to us. A good start to the day.

From there we went to the farmers' market at Stary Kleparz. Last week, I discovered they sell dill pickles at several of the stalls, so we each had one. Then Susan spotted figs, and we bought some of those too.

From the market we walked down Florianska, admiring the only remaining gate to the city, and then into the Rynek Glowny (the main square). After admiring the architecture of the Cloth Hall and the churches, we wandered through the festival of science set up in the square, which somehow included traditional dancers (I didn't question how this tied in with the science theme), and then checked out the Polish chocolates at the Wawel chocolate shop. I told Susan about my disastrous experience with Polish chocolates in the fall, which only made her more eager to try the traditional Polish treat of chocolate covered marshmallows. Her verdict was pretty much the same as everyone else's in Canada . . .

We then continued through the old town, stopping to admire Copernicus' handiwork as well as his likeness. I tend to ignore Krakow's scientific side, but since Susan is both a phsyist and engineer, I took her picture in front of Copernicus' statue.

We also managed to check out the city's fascination with John Paul II, looking at an exhibition of photos chronicling his various trips to Krakow, and walking by the house in lived in at one time.

After a few more churches, we stopped for some of Krakow's famous pretzels, which are really more like very large bagels. Fortified, we headed for Wawel Hill and the castle.

I think my highlight of Wawel Hill (we didn't go into everything), was climbing up the inside of the bell tower, and seeing the gigantic iron bells. The bells hang from huge wooden beams, and you have to climb up ladder-like steps around them to get to the top. The other reward for the climb is a great view of the city.

From Wawel Hill, we walked along the Wisla into Kazimierz, where we stumbled across some kind of choral music festival, which included North American-style cheerleaders.

I told Susan that the Poles love their ice cream, so she decided she had to try some. She thought that walking with ice cream might help her pass as Polish, but almost immediately after stating that, some British guys on a stag party asked her, in English, for directions to the Sheraton. I guess the British genes are just too strong in her.

From Kazimierz we wandered back to my house, stopping in at the mall to see if we could get Susan a lint brush - the cats had taken a liking to her black jacket.

Seven and a half hours after we started out, we arrived home, having walked most of the downtown area in Krakow.

But, Susan's Krakow experience wasn't complete until she ate some sausages for dinner in a cellar restaurant, drank a Polish beer (Tyskie), and tried out the Polish version of cheesecake, sernik.

We finished the night with a drink in one of Krakow's many famous pubs, (thankfully avoiding any British stag parties), and Susan was on her way to the airport just a few short hours later.