Krakow, Poland

Last weekend Tonje, Chris, Greg and I visited Krakow. Getting there was not as easy as our other trips but thankfully Chris is good at figuring out the little details. We hopped on a train at 7am in Brno, switched trains 2 hours later (with a 5 minute window) and 45 minutes on that train we were at the border of the CZR and Poland. Since, for some reason, there is no train that goes straight to Krakow, we got off there and proceeded to cross and bridge and enter Poland. We got some Polish Złoty (1 USD = 3 pln) and found the bus station. Chris found a bus service that will take us straight to Krakowin 3 hours. Turns out the "bus" isn't really that. An oversized van with seating for 20 people and no heater. But, it could have been much worse and we got there with no problem. Minus me hitting some lady in the face with my backpack, that was all me.

who eats sushi at 7 am? Tonje does.

Tonje found our hostel, Nathan's Villa Hostel Krakow, and it was only 14 Euro for the entire weekend! It's in a good location and has a bar in the basement. Perfect for us! We set out to find some food and plan the weekend. The hostel had brochures for tours of Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mines. We knew it would be a long day, but we needed to visit both of those places. (I'll make Auschwitz-Birkenau it's own post, there needs to be a gravity when I talk about it.)

The culprit

Well, it turns out that Polish beer is much, much, much stronger than Czech beer and we ended our night early. And morning came way to fast. Lets just say, I was not exactly steady when we left Saturday morning, which amused my friends so much. Between the Polish beer and my anxiety about visiting a former concentration camp, my stomach was rolling. But I made it through the day with only a little blip and I am better for having seen the camp. After the camp, we visited the Wielczka Salt Mine. Here's what the Krakow website has to say about it...

The Wieliczka Salt Mine, nowadays practically on the southeast outskirts of Krakow, has been worked for 900 years. It used to be one of the world's biggest and most profitable industrial establishments when common salt was commercially a medieval equivalent of today's oil. Always a magnet, since the mid-18th century Krakow's Wieliczka salt mine has become increasingly a tourist attraction in the first place. Today visitors walk underground for about 2,000 m in the oldest part of the salt mine and see its subterranean museum, which takes three hours or so.

Nine centuries of mining in Wieliczka produced a total of some 200 kilometers of passages as well as 2,040 caverns of varied size. The tourist route starts 64 m deep, includes twenty chambers, and ends 135 m below the earth surface, where the world's biggest museum of mining is located with the unique centuries-old equipment among its exhibits.

Occasionally concerts and other events take place in the Wieliczka mine’s biggest chambers.

There is a sanatorium for those suffering from asthma and allergy situated 135 meters deep underground in the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

UNESCO has entered the Wieliczka Salt Mine in its World Heritage Register.

It was very cool to see all of the caves and carvings and to be that deep in the ground! The salt purifies the air and Tonje and I swear that our skin was smoother after being down there!

Pictures to come!