Krakow, Poland (part one)

The first photo I took in Krakow

My flight was uneventful.  Long layovers in Vancouver and Frankfurt but that was my own doing, at least the Frankfurt one.  Last time, I missed my connection there so this time, 5 hours.  I had to find a new SD card (I managed to bring a 56 mg card!).  I am once again reminded how old I am carrying around my actual camera by how difficult it was to find an actual SD card.  But I was successful so I can take more than 6 pictures on this trip.  Mostly I filled my time reading two books.  

Krakow airport has great wifi so I managed to download an E-Sim while I was in various border control line-ups.  And managed to get it working which is a minor miracle.  A necessary miracle because I needed to figure out how to get to my hotel.  

There's a train!  There is always a train in Europe but I still am surprised considering we barely just got a bus to the airport (I'm not even sure if there is a bus yet, thanks to lovely Megan taking me to the airport!)

Anyway, Krakow!  This is a beautiful city.  I am in the Jewish area and it is a short walk to Old Town.  I have not been to Old Town yet however.  

My room.  Kitchenette not viewable 
but functional.  

My first day was a bit of a write off to be honest.  I woke up at 5 am and decided that was a bit too early and then work up again at 10 am.  Then there was some administrative work to be done.  I needed to book a train to Warsaw.  But I also wanted to visit Schindler's Factory at some point.  It seems you can't just decide to visit Schindler's factory on a whim.  Booked solid for a week.  So, I booked a tour on my last day here.  That gave me a timeline for the train.   Warsaw is big so I had to cross reference where I'm staying there in relation to train stations.  (I can hear Rob saying 'AI would have done that for you'). 

Plus I needed to go to the grocery store and drink some coffee, you know, stuff.  So, I didn't get going until after 1 pm.   I had a 3 pm free walking tour booked.  Krakow Jewish Quarter and Ghetto tour.  

None of this is news, but this town has some terrible history during the second world war.  It was Nazi headquarters. Which, was good for me, future tourist, in that they did not destroy the town like they did elsewhere.  So there are lots of old buildings including several synagogues still standing.  The Nazis repurposed them into storage and stables and whatnot.  There is even still a Jewish cemetery that survived because they turned it into a garbage pit, which was later excavated and restored.  

70 000 Jews in the town pre-war.  65 000 killed.  The other 5000 left after the war.  You can't blame them, walking through this history is awful, I can't imagine surviving it and then deciding to come back to it when it was finally safe to do so (long after the war).  Our guide said there are only 100 Jews here now.  And they manage to maintain four working synagogues.  

This is a commemorative stone marking the oldest cemetery.  The headstones are long gone but  the remains are not.  Near the old synagogue

I learned how to tell if a building is historically Jewish
If the windows are rounded.  It is supposed 
to represent Moses' commandment tablets.

Plaques commemorating victims of the holocaust

Hero's Square in the Jewish Ghetto.  This was the 'sorting centre'
where Jews were sorted into those who could work and
those that would die immediately.  There are now 65 chairs to 
represent the 65 000 who died.

This guy whose name I missed.  He was a Polish spy who 
snuck back into the country to see the atrocities.  He then reported
what he had seen and heard to FDR who simply could
not believe that what he was hearing could possibly be true. 
So, he did not act on the information.  

Houses in the Jewish Ghetto.  There would be upwards of 
100 or more people in each house. 

Street in the Jewish Ghetto.  The historical ghosts
are a bit overwhelming when you see these old buildings
and imagine what happened here.

writing the next day. 

I have completely messed up my time change system.  I went to bed at 8 pm, as per the rules on my first night.  Then I woke up early, and still managed to sleep late that first day.  And then things went to pot.  By day two, I was up at 2 am, out of the room by 5 am went to bed at 6 pm and now here I am writing this at 5 am after having been awake for hours.  Laundry is hanging from the kitchen cupboards, I am on my second cup of milky instant coffee.  But I have an 8 pm event today so maybe that will force me back on track?

But I digress.  Back to whatever I did that first day.  Gad, it gets so blurry so fast.  I was going to try to not write every day but this is the result.  Also, I brought the wrong little computer, the crappy one.  So uploading photos is difficult.  They may be limited.  

The tour was both very good and very awful. I mean that guide really told a horrific tale with even more horrific details that I will spare you.  I don't know what I thought it was going to be but... I went to Auschwitz the next day and it wasn't as bad as that free walking tour.   

Some more random photos of the city while walking about

This looks super creepy now that I am looking at 
this picture but it is statues of acrobats suspended 
between the walking and cycle parts of a bridge

When I had arrived I bought a three day pass for the public transit.  I could have walked back but I took the train back over the bridge.

We had gone to a square, I'm not even going to try to remember the name in Polish although it wasn't complicated, but in English it is New Square.  There was a little market and the best place to get famous sandwiches.  So, I took the train there.  Or, rather, I tried to.  I basically took a train up the wrong road.  Pro-tip, the #13 and the #3 trains are not the same.  And then I managed to take a reverse train back down the same street.  At that point I just decided to walk.  I found New Square, bought a pendant and a sandwich.  

Krolewska.  This is the small one.  It was huge. 

I see a horn instrument, I have to take a picture for Joe

I am lucking out with the early morning wifi but I think I am going to have to post this day by day.  My computer is having trouble saving this much data on that bit o' wifi.  So, Auschwitz for another day.