Easter Festivities
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2008
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Trip End
Mar 26, 2008
Krakow, Southern Poland, Poland
Saturday, March 22, 2008
I realised shortly after booking that perhaps this would mean that we would have to plan which day we took a trip to Aushweitz and the Salt mine on but i hadn't anticipated that the whole of Krakow would turn out for a mass in the main square and a quaint but very pretty easter market on Good Friday followed by a pilgrimage around all the churches in Krakow!
if its good for the locals then its good enough for us and we ambled around some of the most magnificent churches that I have ever been in. I was struck how very religious the Polish are. I haven't experienced this before and in some ways it was overwhelming to see the faith that people have even after everything that the Polish people as a nation have suffered over the centuries and it wasn't just the elderly. It appears that the church plays a massive part in Polish Culture. The monks and nuns that we saw wandering the streets were all probably younger than us and although it was a surprise it was quite nice to see something completely different.
Out of respect for others and in consideration that Good Friday is one of the most important days in the religious calendar I did refrain from taking photographs initially until I was standing admiring a particularly graphic depiction of Christ of the crucifix ( I think) when a flash of a camera caught my attention and drew my eyes down to a little old lady no more than 4 foot tall and with no teeth taking a picture - she gave me a gummy smile and began to walk away when I noticed that she was in full habit and was infact a Nun! I was however being given the eye by various locals and whether that was because I clearly wasn't a devout Roman Catholic who felt the necessity to kneel and kiss the body of Christ in the literal sense or because I was clearly not Polish or because I had a rather large Camera I'm not sure but I didn't take any pictures for fear that the flash would go off and I would be mobbed by a rabble of gummy Polish Nuns!!! Nevertheless I was in awe of some of the magnificent churches we visited and of one in particular which was painted in white and pinks with Cherubs in both the glass works and the paintings.
The old part of Krakow is amazingly beautiful but it felt like I was revisiting Austria as many of the buildings have the spectacular paintings on the front which parts of Austria and also Switzerland are renowned for. I think it would be hard to distinguish the Polish culture in terms of the things that you see in Krakow -Poland has been taken over and run by so many countries in its history that there is a blend of everything even in terms of the food although we found some amazing cafes that served great coffee and even better hot chocolates and of course the smoking ban has not reach the depths of Poland as yet so you can, if you wish, enjoy a coffee and a cigarette indoors here still! I wonder how much of a different image I would have if I had visited somewhere less affected by the invasions and influences of other nations. We did eat in a nice Polish restaurant one night which was an obvious must - I can't remember the name of the dish that I chose as a starter but it was like a loaf of bread with gravy and onion all over it - it tasted great but it could easily have been a main meal! - the dish obviously originates from the world war (first or second or both) because as a child I can remember my nanny giving me a slice of bread after finishing a meal with gravy and you let the bread soak up the remnants of gravy on the plate and they ate the bread as well. I guess in times of ration you savour everything you have and waste nothing- gravy and stale bread included!
I could write a huge long list here about all the great things you can see and do in Krakow but I'm not going to because I can't be bothered and if you wanted to know you could get the lonely planet book! But we did an absolutely amazing walking tour of the city with a guide to the Kazimeir District which is the old Jewish Quarter of Krakow - it was great and although we had infact already been to many of the places that he took us the stories and the history added a new level of interest and appreciation of what Krakow was before the Nazi's came and changed everything for ever......
