02/08/2010

Krakow, Poland

First morning in Krakow and I spent it around the Jewish 1/4 of Kazimere and walked out of the city to the suburb of Podgorze where the old Ghetto and Plasow camp were situated. In the main square lie Jarden Jewish bookshop, where I picked up a walking guide and several Jewish cafes and restaurants- Arial- seems to be the best one, stopped here for a Cappuccino whilst I read up on the walking guide routes.

From here I walked to Podgorze- it was very hot, flittering between 36-40 degrees- I was wearing black in preparation for the cold salt mines later: my body had become a jacket potato! I found the deportation square just over the bridge- numerous wooden chairs have been fixed to the square- a place of waiting- yet no one is left to sit here. Very moving- odd though that people have taken it upon themselves to use these chairs to sit on whilst waiting for the bus. Opposite is a small exhibition in the Apetka on the Ghetto, camp and sewage escapes It is 2 rooms: Mondays seems to be free day at Jewish museums- excellent!!

I walk on, finding one of the buildings on the route: a significant place in the Ghetto has not become a bank: a certain irony in terms of issues of exploitation! But no memorial plaque, in fact there is a memorial plaque to the architect of part of the new design. I walked pass a plaque on a section of the Ghetto wall and then head to the Plasow site- after a struggling walk up the marshy hill (The site is pretty much abandoned) I find only 3 memorials out of the supposed 6. I can hear a rather large creature in the woodlands and am slightly scared so retreat and after going down all the viable paths and coming out on the same road, I admit defeat! Frankly it was probably a squirrel, but sound is always amplified when you are alone. From here I head to Schindler's factory- which is closed once a month- on the first monday- damn! -Could visit here on Wednesday.

I return to the Jewish quarter and the visit the surrounding synagogues , there are various plaques in the Remu synagogue that commemorate Ghetto/ Holocaust victims for Krakow, which have been donated by their family or friends. The wailing wall in the cemetery created out of the broken grave stones is very poignant.

I respite to wait for my tour to the Salt mines from by the Ester hotel in the quarter with a fruit and ice cream lunch, mojito and orange juice- as I said, it is hot! The salt mines are 14C- I can't wait!

The salt mines are beautiful, the trip down 400 steps is actually painless- not a struggle, the journey to the first level is a little boring, going round and round and round, but the artefacts below are well worth it. Chapels,churches and monuments carved out of pure salt. You were encouraged to taste the pure salt- it reminds me of McDonalds- says a lot about their food!

On the way there and back we pass the large monument I was looking for this morning, I fail at photographing it, so instead video it- note to self: capture the still on return.

Back at the hostel, it was BBQ night- wasn't worth the 5zl (£1.10), I officially dislike red meat in Eastern Europe more than in the UK- chicken is my friend! Chilled with a couple of Polish beers at £1.50 a go with this Jewish guy from Baltimore (keep meeting American Jewish guys everywhere!), he use to be teacher and is now a city planner- we chatted about Jewish Europe, Holocaust memorials (he had just been to Auschwitz and gave me a warning about how disappointed he was), travelling and world cities. He recommended Serbia, Armenia and Bosnia particularly the Serbian international film festival. The Irish girl and her friend from Cork joined us for a while, turns out they are primary school teachers- were talking about the differences in the Irish/ English education system (I always thought they were the same!)- you have to have a 2nd language to go to University over there and you have to learn Gallic till 18!

The Baltimore guy (No idea what anyone's name is- that is not part of the traveller's etiquette: it only matters: where you are from, where you have been and where you are going to in this micro-world of the hostel) showed me the Old Town by night (I still hadn't been there)- it was beautiful, we took some photos and chatted about the fact we had both left significant others behind and the wonder of wifi, skype and the iphone for such situations. We tasted some Polish vodka (they WILL NOT put coca cola in your vodka. You can order a shot of vodka on ice and a coca cola but not in the same drink)- both the Polish and the American think I am strange for mixing the vodka, having tasted it, I think I am strange too. Then we headed back to the hostel: I was the last one to bed tonight (Gets the lil' b*****s back for last night!!)