Krakow-ski...Of Course!

By far one of the best vacations I’ve been on thus far. I’m not really a city person but I instantly fell in love with Krakow. The old colorful buildings captivated me in a way that architecture has never done before. The area is rich in WWII history, which for some reason has always intrigued me. The language was a crazy encounter of the third kind but I quickly learned by simply adding a “ski” to the end of each word I could carry on an intelligible conversation with the natives. Okay…not entirely true but FACT: Egyptian = Egipski, case in point. Also, since Romanian has some Slavic influence, I was able to pick up on a few words and by a few, I mean two. While Poland was amazing in itself, I think the greatness of this trip was enhanced by getting a glimpse of life on the “other side.” I don’t always realize what I’m missing while in Romania but after leaving for a brief period, I was served a giant cup of Espresso. Although in Eastern Europe and a former member of the Eastern Bloc, Poland has become extremely westernized. It is astonishing how much faster the development has evolved than in Romania after communism ended in 1989. Granted I did only experience a small portion of the country for a small period of time but the differences were surprisingly vast. People appeared to be happy, customer service was decent, there were not any stray dogs, I wasn’t in a continuous cloud of smoke (was even given the option of sitting in a non-smoking section) and it was relatively clean. Obviously the two countries have gone through their individual experiences but there has to be some further explanation. In pursuing such answers from a variety of Romanians, it has been fascinating learning more about their history and in turn, provided me with a better understanding of the negative mentality and sense of hopelessness that so many people carry here.

As I’ve expressed on several accounts before, traveling here takes an ungodly amount of time. In order to cut back on some of that time, we found a cheap roundtrip plane ticket from Targu Mures, Romania to Budapest for the equivalence of $12. Obviously too good to be true, right? Surely it would be an open cockpit, powered by us pedaling or maybe even a simple hang glider. Surprisingly Loose Wizzair Sleeve airlines presented a giant plane but unfortunately 6 hours late. Consequently we missed out on our day to see Budapest and our connecting train to Poland. On the plus side, we got a free sandwich and an all expense paid stay at the Budapest train station with all the homeless, drunks and hookers. The train station was actually pretty cool looking and made me think Dr. Zhivago (but that could be an incorrect memory on my part.) Either way, after a crazy night at the Budapest train station, where I might have contracted a temporary case of fleas, we took the next train to Krakow. However, this particular train took the scenic route into Slovakia through Bratislava into Czech Republic and 10 1/2 hours later to Poland. It was a nice opportunity to see a little bit of the other countries and experience 5 different currencies within a week. I did meet a friendly lady from Vienna who spoke a little English and insisted I talk to her daughter in English on the phone. Regrettably, the daughter was unavailable so her mother and I agreed on being pen pals via email. The lady was quite interesting, as she told me about the special education system in Austria (her son has Down Syndrome) and the prejudices she experienced as a Pole in Austria. In the grand scheme of things, to travel a distance that is maybe comparable to the Minneapolis to Chicago route (if that), it took over 24 hours and every form of transportation except a boat. No lie, I was in a car, plane, bus, metro, maxi taxi and multiple trains. If something doesn’t go wrong, which it inevitable does, you feel a bit let down, for you have nothing to show for your time spent.

Upon arriving in Krakow, I was immediately in awe. The apartment we rented was right next to the Florian Gate, which was once the entrance to the fortified Old Town of Krakow. We were only a few blocks away from the Main Market Square, Europe’s largest medieval square. We could even hear the bugler play from the tower of St. Mary’s Church every hour on the hour. Word on the street is that for as long as anyone can remember, a bugler has played the same song and stops mid note to honor the bugler who was announcing the arrival of the Tartars in 1241 and took an arrow from the enemy right in the jugular!

One of my favorite nights out was the evening we spent with our new crazy Polish friends. There are a few universities in Krakow, so there were lots of students and young people. This was exhilarating for all four of us Peace Corps Volunteers because we are currently living in small towns and villages in Romania, where 20-somethings are nearly nonexistent. It was fun to get a brief encounter with the Polish culture and hear about their worldviews (who they like, who they hate and why.)

We did the sobering trip to Auschwitz, an hour and half bus ride out of Krakow. It was a cold and rainy/snowy day; either way it would have been a fairly miserable trip. Even seeing the evidence of cruelty in person, did not make it any easier for the mind to fathom that such atrocities actually happened. However, it didn’t make it any easier to forget either, which I think is the motive in going to see something like this. As unsettling as it was to walk through where 1.1 million people were executed, I’m glad I did. There really are no words to express such an experience.

All things considered…lots of history, culture, good food, good drinks and good people…it was a grand trip! One I would recommend to anyone. Na zdrowie!