udapest after a quick weekend trip to Poland. Aaron (my friend, fellow Rotary scholar and most-fun travel companion) and I were pleasantly surprised by Krakow and Auschwitz. In fact, Krakow must might rival Rome for distinction of my favorite city in Europe. I realize this is a bold statement to make, but indeed Krakow was amazing.Here is a recap of the top-ten trip highlights, in no particular order:
1. "Here is WHAT?"- The journey started Friday night. Initially there was a bit of confusion about the train- we thought our train from Budapest was direct to Krakow, but after six attempts at clarification with the train man we finally understood that we had to change in Miskolc. We got off at Miskolc and then tried to find the actual t
icket windows so we could check the time of our train. After a bit of wandering around the underground tunnels Aaron emerged at street level and said, "Here it is." I followed, got to the top, saw nothing but a parking lot and said, "Here is WHAT?!" We both doubled over laughing, as I had failed to see the huge brick train station to the left.2. The train rides.- Here is something Americans could learn from the Europeans. I really enjoy trains, I must say. If we could detach ourselves for five minutes from our cars and build our cities in ways that encouraged walking we could hugely benefit from trains. Aaron and I did some of our best brainstorming on the trains- "top travel destinations for the next four months," "number of countries visited," and more. We also were a
ble to recline comfortably as we had our cabins to ourselves each time. And encounters with border guards are always fun. Entering Poland they stamped our passports that we were exiting (instead of entering), and then had to correct that mistake with another stamp, and since they couldn't figure out if we were coming or going they stamped in the middle of the page, effectively taking up an entire page... which means I am now onto the amendments pages. Time to visit the Embassy! Oh, and on the way back we may have fallen asleep and missed our stop. The ticket checker's exact words were something like, "Budapest? That way (pointing in the opposite direction). We're going to Bucharest (Romania)." Oops.3. Our hostel.- We arrived in Krakow at 7:30am on Saturday morning and went straight to the hostel, which we had booked online ahead of time at Hostelworld.com. Although we initially had concerns about the place (mainly stemming from the
fact that we woke the poor woman up since it was only 8:15am on a Saturday and she was a bit grumpy with us), it turned out to be amazing- we had our own room, own bathroom, entire kitchen set-up, towels and it was located very close to the center of town. The entire weekend we walked everywhere. It was truly super.4. Great coffee shops and restaurants.- We had coffee on Saturday morning after arriving at this adorable coffee shop called Coffee Street, and an amazing dinner two nights in a row at a restaurant... what we liked was that each place had a lot of character, friendly staff and reasonable pric
es. Oh and not to mention that the five glasses of wine we each had we amazing. That's over two days for those of you who just rose your eyebrows. A+ for food and drink.5. The castle!- Way better than Budapest's, that's for sure. Check out the pics.
6. Random sights.- After hitting the Castle and the Jewish District, in an attempt to find a market we had spotted on the way in on the train, we took a bit of a detour (that took us way far off our map) but found some interesting places- a Chair memorial (WWII?) and the site of Schindler's Factory, from the movie "Schindler's List." Very cool.
7. "Krakowa Galeria."- This amazing mall is a shortcut between the train and bus stations and the main part of town. It's amazing. Bright, beautiful shops, grocery stores, organic food stores, coffee shops, gelato stands, pharmacies, travel agencies... it's really a one-stop shopping place. The Americans could really learn something from this example.
8. Ausch
witz.- The Auschwitz compound is actually three concentration camps in one. As a living memorial and museum it was extremely well done and we were thoroughly impressed. We did a three hour tour with a guide who trained for a year and a half for the position.9. "Alkohole."- Liquor stores are called "Alkholes," which we thought was a hilarious play on words if you look at it from an English language point of view. Someone should step out on a limb and open up a liquor store in the U.S. with this name.
And finally, 10. Very inexpensive!- Poland is significantly cheaper than Budapest, and for $100 (including train ticket, lodging, food and sights) I had one of the most fun weekends ever. Yay!
For more pics check out Aaron's page.
No comments:
Post a Comment