Exploring Krakow

While my mom was in Poland, we decided to visit Krakow and Wroclaw.

This is the famous Krakow Pretzel.  They cost like a quarter and keep your tummy from growling since you're constantly walking and exploring the city.  They have these little pretzel stands at nearly every corner - making them a very convenient finger food.

Krakow was our first stop.  We did a lot of exploring.  I had been here 8 years ago, and wow, so much has changed in 8 years.  This city is way more touristy than I remember it being the last time I was here.   I also remember Krakow being a massive city - but this time that I came, I didn't feel like it was that big or easy to get lost in.  

One of my favorite places in Krakow is the sukiennice.  It means "cloth hall" in Polish.  It used to house a trading system for - cloth.  During the war it was destroyed - and alas - has been rebuilt.  The inside houses a museum and lots of little Polish souvenirs and trinkets that are all homemade and symbolize the heart of Poland's cultural style in arts & crafts.

  I love all the little finds inside of here.  I'm pretty sure that 19 year old Katie bought all the souvenirs pictured above the first time that she was in Krakow.  But I still have my eye set on a few that I really want to buy to display in my home in America one day.

  Around the outside of the Rynek is absolutely beautiful and full of life.  There are hundreds of children from all over Europe - here on field trips to explore the city (and the surrounding areas - more to come on that later) and lots of cute little flower shops with bright yellow canopies.  

But, by far, my favorite was the street performers.

Seriously, I need to find out how she does this and become a street vendor here in Warsaw.  This is great!

I laughed so hard when my mom wanted her picture taken next to the silver statue.  She thought it was an odd statue to be placed in the Rynek - but hey - Lionardo's "Lady with an Ermine" is housed in Krakow so maybe it is a tribute to his work.  As we got closer, the statue blinked and scared my mom.  I laughed so hard.  It was great.  But then it gets better - she wanted her picture next to another "street performer" which actually was a statue.  Just a regular mannequin showing off a traditional Polish cultural outfit. 

After exploring the Rynek we decided to explore the Wawel Castle.  They only sell so many tickets a day and since there were so many field trips - they were sold out for that day. Instead we just wandered around in the inside of the castle walls.  It's really pretty and I don't feel like we missed out on anything except seeing the Royal Treasury - which, like I said - I don't feel like we missed out on anything.

Every night my mom wandered around the Rynek trying to connect to the local Wi-fi (which worked, but wasn't strong enough since too many people were using it) to show her 2nd graders back in Layton the beautiful city and let them have a "cultural experience."

(Move over Provo, the "boots" in Krakow seem way more serious).

One of the days there we went to Schindler's Factory (from Schindler's List).  They turned the whole factory into a museum so you don't really get to see any of the actual "factory" but you do get to see the desk that Oskar Schindler worked at.  After reading about him, from the museum, I have very mixed feelings about this Mr. Schindler.  Don't get me wrong - he was a great guy for saving as many Jews as he could.... but... it talked about how he was a womanizer and not faithful to his wife.  Also talked about how shady his life was before he got into this position of power.  It seemed like he would do anything to knock other people down just to make himself look better and raise his stature in life.  That doesn't seem like your typical person who reaches out to others and tries to save others lives.  Somewhere, somehow the dots don't connect for me and I don't have a good picture of who he really was.

Near Schindler's Factory there is an outside display of art.  It's pictures of chairs in a square.  I think that the empty square and empty chairs are supposed to symbolize the people who lived in Krakow who died during WWII and what their life could have turned out.  The chairs are empty because these ghosts will never get to fulfill their dreams or make an impact in someone's life because their life was cut short by the war.  They represent what could have been and instead what is missing in Krakow.

I had a lot of fun exploring in Krakow.  Exploring is my favorite.  That's why I love traveling so much with Michal because we just go exploring together.  When I realized that's what my mom loved to also do (explore) it made it so enjoyable.  We were able to find our way around, laugh at our mistakes, and go where we wanted to, when we wanted to and how we wanted to.  It was great. 

More to come...