Krakow

Krakow is awesome. We arrived around 5pm, and received a short walking tour of the old Jewish neighborhood and dinner. The next day (Sunday) we received a walking tour of the Wawel Cathedral are (where Pope John Paul II was Cardinal) and the town square in Old Town, called by many the best town square in Europe. At noon, the rest of the group went to the Salt Mines, and Susan and I had the rest of the day to ourselves because we cut out of group activities as much as possible. We split up for the afternoon and met back at 6pm for a string quarter concert. Unfortunately, this is all the time we get in Krakow; we leave at 6am tomorrow for Auschwitz. I'd love to have a few more days in Krakow, as I planned on spending most of my time in the old Jewish Quarter, and I didn't make it back there today. Here are the highlights of my time in Krakow:

1. Catholic Poland

If Rome is all about Catholic power (my cynical opinion), Krakow is all about Catholic piety. Today's tour guide said 40% of Polish Catholics go to Mass weekly, far higher than any other country in Europe. It has to be true, based on the number of Masses each church has. The church nearest our hotel, started Sunday masses at 6am. I found a church that had 10 Masses on Sunday and 8 on weekdays. And it isn't because of a shortage of churches….they are everywhere. In the old town, there is one on every block almost, and in some cases, churches next to each other. Some are very small; I went into two that only had 20 small pews that could hold 3-4. These churches were very old (1300's) and ornate. I went to mass at a larger church in Old Town at 1pm, and that church had Masses all morning, another at 2:00, another at 5:00….the churches seem to pretty much go all day long on Sundays. Our tour guide said he knows a church that starts having Masses at 5am on Sundays. It was impressive.

My funny church story of the day: I stopped into this small church right after Mass ended and took a seat in a folding chair. I thought I'd just hang out for a few minutes and check out the scenery. Three nuns were doing the wrap up duties that the servers typically do, and several people were stayed after Mass to pray. This old bat with VERY overdone black painted eyebrows comes up to me and starts talking in Polish. She pointing at me and clearly giving me orders. Normally, I would just say "English" to indicate I didn't understand, but I could tell that would not deter this woman., so I didn't try it Funny thing… when an old bat in church gives you orders in a language you don't understand, you learn the language real quickly. I see the woman is carrying a folding chair like the one I'm sitting on, so I figure she wants me to get my butt out of the chair and put it away. I grab my chair and hers and give me my best "what now?" look, and she points to the back of the church, where a nun is stacking the folding chairs up. No problem, I take the chairs back to her. Then the old bat starts talking and pointing to all the folding chairs in the church, letting me know that my work isn't done. As I hand the chairs to the nun, she notices the camera in my hand, points at it, says something, and kinda giggles. The message I got was "ha ha ha, you thought you'd slip in here and take some pictures, but Grandma Eyebrows had other plans." As I'm picking up the chairs, Eyebrows never takes her eyes off me, as if she thinks I'll make a dash for the door if she doesn't closely monitor my behavior. When all the chairs are picked up, Eyebrows stands at the door and indicates I'm to open it for her. Ha! I almost asked if I could get my picture taken with her.

I did a lot of church hopping today, which was easy given how close together the churches are. I drank Polish hot chocolate, which has ruined me for American hot chocolate…it was so thick, you could almost put a spoon in it and it wouldn't fall over. For lunch, I had a plate of pierogies that were out of this world.

Susan and I went to a string quartet concert in a church build in the 1100's that only have 5 small pews! We were in the front row; I could have stuck my leg out and kicked the Celloist. The acoustics were amazing.

The 'attractions' in Krakow are all in a compact area and easy to walk. The city is clean, beautiful and architecturally amazing, as it wasn't bombed heavily in the wars. The food is good (albeit very heavy), the prices are cheap compared to most large cities in Europe, the people are nice, and the crowds aren't overwhelming. It is easy to find English speakers. The locals are mingling with the tourists….in the town square, I saw several little girls celebrating in their first communion dresses. This one is going to be high on my "Return to" list.