Krakow: A Welcome Surprise

During the last few days of my spring break, I traveled with the rest of my study abroad program to Krakow, Poland. I didn’t have very many expectations for the trip, and was surprised by how much I liked Krakow. It had the beauty of an old European capital without being filled with tourists like Prague or too focused on being pretty, which is a feeling I sometimes get from Vienna. It was simply pretty without needing to make a huge effort or fuss about it.

One of the prettiest parts of Krakow is the strip of park that surrounds the central inner city. It was really enjoyable to walk through and added appreciated open space to the city.

Our first day, we had a day long guided tour through the city that covered the main sites and museums of the city, which was a particularly packed day. We started out at the Wawel castle. Although Poland has been ruled by other empires for much of its history and its capital today is Warsaw, Krakow was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1569. The castle was filled with a huge collection of gorgeous tapestries. Next to the castle, is Wawel Cathedral, which includes a large canopy with a coffin underneath of Poland’s patron saint Stanislaus.

We then visited the Collegium Maius Museum, the University of Krakow’s oldest building, which outlines the history of the university and displays a variety of artifacts from the university’s collection. One of the University’s most famous students is Nicolas Copernicus.

We took a lunch break at the Main Market Square. On the square is a large sculpture entitled Eros Bendato by Igor Mitoraj, the same sculptor who made the sculpture in The Hague. You can actually climb in the head as well.

After lunch, we went to St. Mary’s Basilica which makes quite a presence on the central square, in part because a trumpeter plays a signal every hour from the church’s tower. 

We were not allowed to take photos inside the church (or the castle-hence the above lack of internal photos), but the interior of the church is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The Gothic style altar was impressive, but the most beautiful part of the church was the awe-inspiring colorfully decorated ceiling. Here’s a photo from the Internet, although I don’t think it does the church justice.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cross_inside_St_Mary%27s_church_Krakow.JPG

We finished up the tour by visiting Kazimierz, Krakow’s Jewish quarter. It’s well known as being the filming site for many Holocaust films, including Schindler’s List, although the Krakow ghetto was located elsewhere. Although there are several synagogues in the district, there are very few Jewish people living in Krakow today. To give a sense of the dramatic change, Jews made up 25% of the city’s population, about 60,000 people in 1938, but Krakow’s Jewish population numbers only 600 people today. In an uncomfortable and yet revealing incident, we were yelled at by a Polish man in front of the Holocaust memorial. Although I couldn’t understand what he was saying, from what I gathered, the source of his hostility was the fact that our tour was taking place in German. It certainly brought to the forefront the deep emotions that remain in Europe today regarding the events of World War II. We also ate at a Jewish restaurant in the district as a group. Although I’m not sure how truly authentic the food was, it was certainly delicious and the accompanying Kazimierz music was enjoyable.

After our tour, we were free to explore the city. We wandered some along the Vistula River and explored Krakow, which in addition to being historically beautiful, is also a quirky, hip city with lots of young people.

The dragon statue refers to the story of the Wawel Dragon. According to legend, a dragon lived on the foot of the hill where the castle is located along the river. A variety of stories are told about the dragon, who has since become one of the main city symbols of Krakow.

Another great aspect of visiting Krakow: the prices. In comparison to the countries I’ve visited in Western Europe, most things in Krakow seemed remarkably affordable. Thanks to the great exchange rate, we spent much of our free day shopping at “pay by the kilo” second hand clothing stores. Additionally, the number of affordable restaurants with delicious, healthy food was impressive. Highlights included pirogues and a vegetarian restaurant right by our hotel. Overall, my time in Krakow was wonderfully enjoyable and although it’s certainly premature, I’m already hoping to return to travel more in Poland. 

Brussels

After Amsterdam, I headed south to Brussels. Although I had some issues getting there after I thought I had left my camera at my hostel in Amsterdam and spent some time being lost in Brussels, I did eventually get to my hostel.

My first full day in Brussels, I started by visiting the Atomium, a sculpture of nine spheres in the shape of an iron crystal originally built for the 1958 World’s Fair. While overpriced to visit, the Atomium is a really impressive structure. I was surprised by how huge it is in person, the view from the top viewing platform was impressive, and the setup of the structure with escalators connecting the spheres was interesting to see.

Unfortunately, while I was at the Atomium, which is about an hour away from the city center, the entire Brussels metro system shut down due to an accident in which a bystander attacked and killed a bus driver. While the accident was very unfortunate, neither the hour long walk back to my hostel nor the subsequent decision of the subway employees union to strike for the subsequent week, leading to me needing to walk everywhere in Brussels (my hostel was a half hour from the city center and an hour from the train station) were particularly enjoyable. I also subsequently read an article that talked about the tendency for the public transit employees to strike around holidays, so I think there were certainly suspicions that the attack was capitalized on to create a week long Easter vacation.

Speaking of Easter, I spent Easer morning going to my first Catholic mass at the St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral. While less extravagant than many cathedrals, it was the most decorated churches I’ve attended a worship service in. The mass was bilingual in French and Dutch. To briefly digress, while Brussels is in the French speaking part of Belgium, the city is officially bilingual. Street signs are written in both French and Dutch and most people seemed to know both languages. Since I know English and German, throughout the service, I got more out of the Dutch than the French, although much of the content was lost to me. However, the service was more about the cultural experience than the religious experience. It was also my first Catholic service and the ritualistic aspects of the service were completely new to me. Although not a type of religious service I particularly connect with, seeing how much of Europe and America worships was a really great experience. 

I was a bit tired of going to museums, so I mostly wandered the city looking at a variety of sites such as the Botanical Gardens:

the Stock Exchange Building:

the Parliament Building:

the Royal Palace:

the Town Hall:

the Manneken Pis, the famous, yet tiny statue of a boy peeing:

 the European Parliament:

the Congress Column, which commemorates the founding of the Belgian state:

and Cinquantenaire park which has a triumphal arch. 

In addition to more typically ornate architecture, Brussels has a quirky side too. Due to the large number of comic authors and illustrators from Brussels, there are fun comic book inspired murals all over the city.

In typical touristy fashion, I also ate a waffle. Here’s a photo of my loaded tourist waffle, although I also ate a more subdued traditional waffle covered with powdered sugar later in the trip.

The whole experience ended with another interesting cultural experience.  Based on a map with suggestions from locals, I went to a small independent cinema house and saw a documentary about Japanese experimental music. While the part of the movie in which the musicians were discussing the experimental music scene in Japan in Japanese with French subtitles was lost to me, most of the movie was musicians performing their work which transcends language. Many of the musicians used everyday objects to create music, which was really cool.

While Brussels wasn’t my favorite city to visit, it’s certainly a pretty city with an important role in European politics as the capital of the European Union.