We Love Krakow

Another long one…..now maybe pour yourself an Apple Juice and add Polish Vodka to enjoy this read/travel along with us today, yes that’s a cocktail of choice here and my new fav!

First off the first class seats became quite mushy and all the props and gadgets were put to use, thank goodness my mommy came well prepared for comfort. I will agree the seat was soft 🙂 Although with all the sighs and faces I have a bit of a laugh attack as I debate if she should be called Cinderella or Goldilocks instead of boots, this adds a smile to my most amazing mother’s beautiful face. We hold hands and giggle! On one of our stops we get up and do stretches on the train as no one else is in our special car anymore. The country side is pretty but truly just green trees. Staring out the window I have memories of my Lyon train ride through the French country side and recognize the difference in my mind, that was a much more beautiful and scenic view. Minus of course the end result of a robbery, lol- glad that is funny now 🙂 we read our books, I wrote my update, got us signed up for a Budapest Segway(Vienna sold out). After a quick 3 hours(seriously flew by) I love trains! I am almost done with one book, good thing I brought two.

We were transferred to a bus, met a nice Polish couple who took the elevator route with us as they had large bags to transfer with as well. This was through a tunnel and I think my partner was much happier we were with a couple as opposed to just me leading the way in a quiet place. We all made our way, got luggage stored, tickets checked and boarded the bus, which we both enjoyed better as it was more comfortable and the scenery now was so different. We were driven through small quaint towns and city’s. I will need to freshen up on my geography because the loudspeaker announced that we were approaching the Ukraine border, perplexed me, then we were in Poland? Unsure about that but needed to write it so I can go back later to check it out unless UJ or someone else wants to educate me 🙂

Okay, so I had to go potty on the bus, I asked the lady helper on the bus where it was located, the one who walked around offering snacks, water, took tickets etc. She handled all people and was helpful. She walks me to the middle of bus where there are stairs down……the toilet room is like a dungeon closet. She shows me where the flusher button is hidden and how to use it, I have a small heart attack but really have to pee SO bad. Again those Thai train thoughts swirl my brain, but then I go inside downstairs and feels like I’m back on that cruise ship deck triple double zero. I checked the lock to make sure I could get out as fast as possible. If I could have left the door open I would have, talk about a claustrophobic space 🤪 I come back to my savior mommy and die in hysterical laughter….she has no clue what just went on and I can’t spit out one word because I’m laughing so hard I was crying. This was a sight, lol All these experiences sure make for great memories for which I am grateful 🙏🏻

We are picked up at the Krakow Bus station by Simon, he is a lovely polish guy who was born here and lived here all his life, yet his girlfriend recently moved to Paris so who knows he may follow her too. None the less he is our welcomer to our new home. We arrive at The Amber Hotel, it’s a boutique style smaller hotel just outside of the main city square. They upgraded us to a superior room by chance and it has AIR conditioning that truly works. This is music to my mothers ears! She loves our new home, the room is lovely, beds a little too soft, can’t get perfection but we are HAPPY!!!

Once again it’s a Laurie on the go planned day……don’t worry I promise to take my mom for a spa day once home. We plan to get massages in Budapest at the thermal baths-perfectly times if you ask me, as it’s our last stop. Anyways- Anna picks us up 20 mins after we arrive for a 3 hour walking tour. We realize how perfect our hotel location truly as we walk to the old town area. We LOVE Krakow, it reminds us of Italy. I honestly think I like it better than Prague. It’s a smaller scale town- again with crazy history and the most beautiful architecture. Many churches and the castle were built by Italians so the style is super similar. Rachel- tell Grant I totally remember him sharing his videos and it is somewhat familiar since I saw all his photos. 🙂

Anna is a wealth of knowledge, like a walking encyclopedia about history in Poland. We learn the story of Kazimierz the Great, who was the king, at 34 he married a 12 yr old, they developed the academia- same word for University- we toured this famous campus as it’s the oldest university in Kraków. They started 3 faculty’s, being Law, Medicine, and Philosophy, as they felt most important. Crazy story the 12 yr old wife who was royalty and also called the King of Poland died during child birth at age 24. I tell you my mouth drops open at these crazy stories from so long ago. We continue down the road and set our eyes upon the largest square. Imagine the squares in Rome and Florence but larger. The church bells ring as we approach, tents are set up with things being sold, restaurants line the entire corridor, street musicians are playing classical music, there are many pigeons flying overhead- the sky is blue and it is a perfect day! We both are enjoying the beauty of new surroundings and taking in all the delicious smells. We have not eaten since breakfast. Next we learn about the huge St. Mary’s church where I plan to go light a candle tomorrow. I love lighting a candle and saying a prayer when traveling. They have a guy who plays a trumpet every 4 hours for which we got lucky to happen upon, it sounded wonderful to hear throughout the square. None of the churches in Prague had candles and now I realize they were mostly Protestant, here catholic. Religion is SO interesting. I feel that once Anna realized we were Jewish her tune changed. More about that later……Horses with beautiful carriages line the street to offer a ride. The horses are in full fancy gear, like out of a movie horse & carriages with the dressed up guide to lead. We learn that under this main square it used to be a cemetery during the 10th and 11th century, became this square during the 12 th. I’m again wowed by this fact, life just gets covered up and restarted, nuts!!

We make our way up the hill to the large Wawel Castle which is 400 years old. More history is shared. We toured a church on the castle property and exit to start our walk to the Jewish quarter. This is where Anna takes note of our religion as this was supposed to be a Jewish history walking tour and I got out my paper to inquire if we were still making it to the synagogues and Schindler factory as an hour had already passed by. She notes our itinerary and calls her boss while we take a break. I recall in my research that Poland has an anti Semitic issue and I noticed it today which was shocking yet not after hearing more stories. Krakow had a large population of Jews killed during WW2, 65,000 were killed, she told us only 120 Jewish people live here now, it used to be 400 but communism got rid of more. She proceeded to tell us a very interesting story about a girl she knew whose biological parents dropped her off on the steps of a convent before being taken away to the camps, the couple entered the camp with a doll in their arms as Nazis knew they had a baby. We think we had heard this story as it reminded me of a movie or book. Not sure, gotta look up this girl named Monica W. She learned of her story at age 18 as her adoptive mom got sick and wanted her to know her story as the Bio parents left a note. She is now a speaker and has uncovered her own roots. All these stories fascinate me. None the less Anna was super enthused when telling us Polish stories, and church education yet only took us to one synagogue and told us to look around with no stories. Don’t get me wrong she was lovely it was just strange. Like she was pushing us to eat at a polish restaurant as opposed to trying a Jewish cuisine place, bizarre little things that just make you think wow, I am a minority here. We walked around this Jewish ghetto area, I saw 1 of the 120 Jews, as he was in full orthodox attire walking out of the Chabad. We passed by a JCC, took a photo for Terri.

We have decided if were not emotionally exhausted after our Aushwitz tour tomorrow we will go to the Synagogue we wanted to see and Schindler’s factory tomorrow. By the time we got to this area all were closing. We think she felt bad that she purchased us 2 one way tram tickets to get back to main square area. Although we were starving we chose to eat and walk. We may use tram tickets tomorrow. We walk past all Jewish restaurants to try this authentic Polish Jewish cuisine food. Due to our stomachs growling we choose the guy who is friendliest and lured us in with the bat mitzvah type live havanigilah ( totally misspelled ;-)music playing. I had my first Vodka/Apple juice- very good. We order the stuffed cabbage. It was like a grandma would make……the plate was huge and it was YUMMY!!! Once seated I checked this place on yelp, it only had one star that we only ordered one dish. So once it arrived we were pleasantly surprised how good it was a realized the 1 Star was due to the bad service…..ha ha ha. Seriously the best stuffed cabbage! Waitress was not friendly and slow. Ok……no complaints we are on vacation and in heaven. We had a few laughing attacks reminiscing about my mom getting situated on the train seats, my bus bathroom, and the fact that she thinks I may have shrunk her stomach as we have different eating schedules/habits. She realized we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. A had to be there laughing moment. We are going to progressively dine…..we make our way to a perogi restaurant and try an order of potato/onion/cheese perogi…..an interesting dish. I liked it but you can’t eat 12 of these or you will blow up- heavy :-). We walk back…..it’s gorgeous weather outside. Again boots is amazed at my maps ability. I really just know where to go….love this quality, thank u daddy!

We stop in a few bakeries to find out the hype UJ and Marlene raved about, we share the Pope cream cake……delish!! On our walk back just before we approach the hotel we notice a pharmacy with……drum roll……in the window a huge up in lights sign says HEEL Homeopathy( the company he worked for), hi daddy- thank u for making yourself present. It’s now midnight. I am tired…..I’m sure you are too, lol 🙂 Thank you again for all the comments and replies….so fun to stay connected and share our adventures with YOU!!

Love you, and miss you!
Love Laurie Sue xo