The right time to stop eating is when you think you can have a bite more. Similarly I guess the right time to leave a place is probably when you think you would have liked to spend a few hours more. You leave the place wanting to come back some other time. That's exactly what happened with Krakow.
We had just one evening to spend in Krakow. There wasn't much to do there apparently. No famous palace or museum. I too had decided to go to Krakow because it was the most comvenient place from where one could visit Auschwitz. We landed at the Krakow railway station about 4 and decided to first walk to our hostel and drop our bags. The path we had to take was strewn with the sights and monuments of Krakow and we had seen half of what we eventually saw on our way to the hostel itself. We stopped at the main square for a bit to watch a group performing some hiphop street dance. The square is bound by the cloth market on one side, and two churches at two corners. All along the sides of the square are pretty looking cafes with outdoor seating. Along one side you can find a row of horse carriages. Most driven by smartly dressed young women.
As we walked down the narrow cobble stones streets, I saw this interesting uni-cycle. Unfortunately, I was only quick enough to get a back view.
This long hall is the cloth market. It is an old building that was historically inhabited by cloth merchants. Today it is still used as a market, but not specifically for cloth. You have an assortment of stalls ranging from amber jewelry to furs to small souvenirs.
And soon we had reached our abode for the night - The Little Havana Party Hostel.The hostel takes its name really seriously - partying hard. They even sent us a mail saying we should cancel the booking if we didn't like parties. But it was a lovely hostel. They gave 3 free beers which I didn't care much for but also 1 free burger which was not bad and quite welcome considering we had hardly eaten the whole day.
Below is the cloth market from outside. Around the cloth market is the main square of Krakow. On different edges of the square are some churches, towers and other historical buildings. Seeing whether the building is aligned along the edge of the square or not is a good way to tell whether the building was built before or after the cloth market.
Along the sides of the squares were also several pretty cafes, all with outdoor seating.
As the sun set we just walked around the city with a map, identifying buildings as we walked past them. There were a lot of churches, and almost every church seemed to have some concert. It looked like the churches had concerts almost every day. It was a regular affair. We decided to see one. It was supposed to be classical and film music. I could identify only one song - the track from Schindler's List, nevertheless the concert was really nice. The setting of attending a concert in a church was new to me and seemed to add to the experience.
Music in Krakow wasn't limited to concerts. There were musicians or singers on almost every street I walked on. This man was playing the violin on the street. He was playing so well that a couple of old couples started dancing on the footpath!
We stood by the river for a while and then hurried to see the museum of the underground city. They have apparently preserved an underground city. Alas we reached too late and couldn't see it. Then we walked all around the city looking at appetizing restaurants and rejoicing about how much cheaper Poland was compared to Western Europe. Unfortunately, we spent a tad too much time rejoicing and soon places began to shut down. Eventually we had dinner at the faithful old friend called a Doner shop.
We ended the meal with a lody each. That's what ice creams are called in Poland - Lody. You get amazing flavours and they are much cheaper compared to Western Europe - sometimes even India. 1 scoop for 0.75 cents. I had tiramisu, mango and coffee over the three days I was in Poland and loved all of them!
After the dinner we walked around the city for a while. Unlike some other cities, we'd been to earlier, Krakow didn't go quiet at 8. It was quite up and alive till midnight, when we finally went back to the hostel - with people in the street and street musicians keeping the atmosphere alive. I had a lovely evening in Krakow - and I know I owe it to the people as much as to the place, but Krakow was lovely and it's definitely on the list of places I want to go back to. Hopefully soon.
