Krakow, cracking.

We arrived in Krakow on a wet and snowy evening after 10 hours of travelling on three trains and two buses, the last of which was a total fiasco at the bus stop, with far more people wanting to get on than were seats. I don't know how we managed to get the last two seats but we did and we were very thankful. Others not so lucky had to stand in the aisle for an hour. We wandered through the rainy and snowy streets of Krakow for a bit then finally found our home for the next four days. It was magnificent, a seperate kitchen, bathroom and living room and then a bedroom! We have been a bit deprived of spaces that are designated, so this was quite exciting. It was clean and bright and very comfortable. Shopping for dinner was also quite exciting as there were new things to eat such as pierogi, new beers and a ginger ale that will be a favourite of mine for a while. Home with our new found goods to a plate of Russian pierogi, fried of course with sour cream and spring onions and beers YUM!

Our apartment is in the Jewish quarter called Kazimierz after the King who allowed the Jewish people to live in this area about the 13 th century but as we found out the people were then all moved out during the Second World War and sent over the river to the Jewish ghetto. It has only been in last twenty years or so that this precinct is being revived. It is now quite arty, and there are lots of cafes and the Jewish people have regained their status again here to some level.

Just in case you might not know Krakow is a beautiful little city, it has a lovely old part and a lively new part, with a huge shopping mall in it. It is good to know that shopping malls are the same the world over and just as the doors can open to let you in you can leave just as quickly, they suit their purpose but the old town will always win us to stay. We wandered around the old town and got our travel cards which I would recommend in Krakow because then most of the museums etc and all travel in the city area is free. We went to the Cloth hall which was once one of the biggest trading rooms in Europe, they used to trade fabrics there, hence the name, it now houses a gallery of artworks by Polish artists, many possibly from the Krakow area. Some of the works stood out over others but what we noticed more than anything was the optimism and brightness of these pictures in contrast to pictures else where of the same period. I am not sure if the artists had travelled but the influence of western art was evident or possibly western artists has seen these paintings.

We walked around the market square whis is said to be the largest in open square in Europe, maybe it is, it was quite large. Paul bought himself a local favourite food - a huge slab of bread covered in lard - delicious!

We went to Auchwitz on the Sunday it was cold but sunny. I expected it to be quite gruelling and sad and many more adjectives that I thought I would expeience but I didn't really. Just felt numb and detached and I wanted to get out... Away from all the people taking photo's as if they were at some theme park, away from the stupidity of people, away from the one place that exemplifies the existence of bullies, bigots and all the destruction that can result when you put a bunch of useless people in charge. I went and stood at the bus stop for two hours in the cold- yes Paul had to come as well- and waited for the next bus out. I knew from our last experience that the bus was going to be full and people would push on to get a seat. I was not going to miss this bus. About 10 minutes before it arrived all the people came and started to crowd around I kept our place where I though the door would be. The bus came... The door travelled past... I held my place...5 huge German guys had pushed their way to the door and tried to push me and all the others that had waited for ages out the way. I was not going to pushed aside so I just tucked in and did the best hip and shoulder, I have ever done. They were quite surprised really. I got onto the bus first, to the taunts of the German guys laughing at the 'Oldie' . I Got quite lippy for a bit and sat down to cool off and wait for Paul to untangle himself froml the mess left behind. Auchwitz, arseholes and attitude - that was my day and I was glad to get out of there. Oh! And thanks to all the Italians who trained me in bus warfare.

We went to the Emalia factory (Oscar Schindler's place) in Krakow the day before going to Auchwitz and it also was quite a gruelling experience. Again quite sanitised which is possibly good . It is hard to say anything about the holocaust sites as it is all just too much, too amazingly terrible to even begin to comprehend and I get too angry thinking about it all. So I will try not to think too much.

Paul being quite irreverent on Mount Kosiousko

We walked up mound Kosiosko one day it was a lovely walk through the snow covered streets of Krakow past the hill top cemetery with flower stalls - all the flowers were fake or handmade out of material. Straw or wood shaving flowers - they were quite beautiful. And there were glass lamp jars shaped in different styles, Easter eggs, Christmas trees etc with tea light candles.

The Wawclo Castle was quite a beautiful place, we really only went into the Cathedral though. This was enough. There are a lot of kings, queens and other royalty buried there as were as Thaddeuas Kosiousko. The bell tower is amazing and intersting to see the size of the bells and also the sizes of the huge timbers that were used to create the structure of the tower.

We were meant to be leaving on the Monday but we couldn't work out the best route to get to Berlin - via warsaw? Via Posnan? Or Wracloc? finally after a great deal of time we found a direct train to Berlin that left at 6.30 in the morning YIKES! So we found accommodation closer to the station - note, accommodation near stations is often pretty run down, it served its purpose though. Anyway, while we were researching places I thought to ask my sister, Jacquie, what was the name of our relation who came from these parts. We had learnt about him through a bit of a family history search. As it turned out we actually went past the area that he came from in between Warsaw and Poznan. I don't think it has changed much in that area since he left as a very young man in the mid 18 hundreds. His story is worth a read. If you are interested google 'Solomon Nashelski' there is a NZ connection as well.

Go north about 20 klms from here and there will be Lubranz. It figure it would look mush the same as this.

Krakow had great food in cosy interesting places some of our favourites were hot chocolate so thick you had to eat it with a spoon - it was really hot chocolate pudding in a bowl, with apple shortcake YUM! Cabbage rolls YUM! Pirogi YUM! another local favourite YUM!

Bread with lard. Disgusting.

The very best experience we had in Krakow was on the last day when we went to the salt mine. I can't believe I spent four hours under the ground sometimes as far down as 135 metres gasp, gasp. But it was amazing, unbelievable! It is always so difficult to comprehend the terrible things that mankind can do but then there are the fantastic achievements the beauty and the incredible feats of human indurance. This mine was possibly the best testament to everything mankind could achieve and I am very glad we got to see it. This Cathedral was carved out of the rock salt by three men over 69 years, even the floor is carved rock salt. All of the three were miners not artists or engineers. The chandelier crystals are made out of salt from the crystal caves - we didn't see these caves unfortunately.

Of all the caves and tunnels we saw less than 1% and only 4 of a possible 9 floors.