High On Krakow: Vodka, Salt and World Records

Trip Start Feb 05, 2008

Trip End Ongoing

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Where I stayed

Ars Hostel Krakow

(Krakow hotels)

Flag of Poland Krakow, Poland
Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Krakow (or Crakov) was a last minute addition to my itinerary. And what a great choice. There's a lot to do. It's cheap. It's beautiful ($493.00 and counting). And I can tell you it is right behind Belgrade in the 'best looking women in the world' race. Although I'm told L'viv, Ukraine will give both of them a run. The Poles are friendly and funny. They get sarcasm. They like to drink vodka but alas, although the beer is good, it appears they are not fussy about getting it properly chilled. Their draught beers taste good and are most often served reasonably cold.

I would stay here five nights at what is more my kind of hostel, a place called ARS Hostel, small-only four dorms-with a large and comfortable common room conducive to meeting people. Anna on the dayshift was a great hostess and knew the answer to every stupid tourist question. Every evening Vojtek would come in with numerous free shots of very fine Polish Vodka

The fortress

. The hostel was priced in the same range as the rest of the Eastern European places and included an all you can eat breakfast with excellent fresh bread and boiled eggs and yoghurt and honey and peanut butter! God it's been so long since I had a peanut butter and honey sandwich. One morning I had three.

I met a load of people there. There was Joe, the auzzie who was studying in France-lucky bastard is so smart he doesn't have to work very hard; Nick and Anthony who went to Uni together, Anthony now back in Hong Kong; Lennie and Lise the two very cool auzie girls who kept trying to get me to go clubbing; Raquel with the most amazing 'bonne chance' tattoo who's family owns a bodega in Mendoza and residences in Brazil; and Glen, the absent minded bobby. Glen is a copper in the upscale Kensington precinct of London. We had dinner and a couple of beers together one night. The next morning I awoke to the sound of him frantically scouring through his luggage and pockets. He couldn't find his wallet or his camera which he thought he'd left in the pockets of his shorts next to the bed. One other fellow in our six bed dorm room had checked out earlier. No, couldn't be, but you never know. Glen was supposed to head off to the mountains on a day trip organized by the hostel but wouldn't be going if those two items had been lost or stolen. So off he went to cancel his daytrip and report his stolen goods to the hostel staff and police

Signs

. I got up and went into the living room where while I was chatting with the others about what happened, I looked over and saw his wallet and camera sitting on the buffet next to the breakfast table, cash intact. Glen was elated but asked me to keep quiet about this. Sorry Glen.

It was a very good time to be in Krakow. The weather was great. The place is full of tourists but very relaxed. On Saturday they would be attempting to set a new world record for the largest number of people dancing within a confined space in the town square, which incidentally is considered as the largest central square in all of Europe. (They ended up setting the new world record.) There was a big country fair also going on in the square during the week. It featured traditional Polish arts and crafts, food, music and dancing. Delicious kielbasa and perogies, fried and a little pricey were on order.

I spent a day out at Aushwitz, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps. I'd been to Dachau, near Munich many years ago but it was nothing like this. Sobering. Shocking. Moving. Anger. What is with guys like Jim Keegstra? Doing the tour on your own cuts the cost in about half. You grab a bus at the station for about five bucks each way and $16 admission will get you a guided tour. You could do it on your own for less but the guided tour was fantastic.

A couple of days later and I would take the Salt mine tour at Wieliczka. The bus was less than three dollars both ways but the tour was a rather steep 64 sl-around 30 bucks. As it turns out it was pretty interesting and informative and unlike anything I'd seen before, so worth it

Random street

.

The hostel organized activities every day. One night they took a few of us out for some of the city's best potato pancakes from a kiosk in the old Jewish town centre and beers at the Alchemia Pub, a place that is dripping with history and character. Two bucks got you two big potato pancakes of greasy goodness. On another evening I hit a nearby blues music pub, Mechanoff, just me and a bunch of Poles and good, good tunes in a tiny place.

Krakow is a great looking city, untouched by WWII bombing and the benefactor of significant restoration work. Cafes and buskers are everywhere. So is Wifi. They even have free Wifi in the town square. Half litre beers cost around $2.50, depending on where you were. Cappuccinos were about the same.

Krakow was an excellent introduction to Poland. I would like to check out more of this country.