Day 9 and 10 - Warsaw to Krakow

Day 9 was once again very much a travel day.  I arrived in Krakow middle of the afternoon and the station is quite close to the old town so it was a short 10 minute walk to the place where I was staying.  I just have to describe this to you as it isn’t a place that you would immediately want to stay looking from the outside.  It looks like a run-down dosshouse.  I was following my google maps and walked past it twice trying to work out where it was - even asked at the burger bar which was directly opposite and they didn’t know of it.  So, entering a very seedy doorway (not helped with building work going on next door and scaffolding blocking the way), through a dark passage and it opens onto a small court yard with pot plants, patio tables and chairs and door at the far end.  Entering it was like going into a replica of a Brazilian cafe in the fifties - very South American, you get the type of picture I’m painting.   I expected Bogart to come out and greet me but instead Alice came out (although there is a picture of Boggie on the wall).  She offfered me tea and biscuits (very hospitable) then showed me to my room and gave me 4 keys.  Yes, 4 keys - red one for the main door after 10 p.m. at night; metal key for the gate to the very historical 16th century stair well; yellow key for the huge door at the top of the stairs; and then my room key, to a very heavy old door with leather padding on the inside.  My room followed in the same theme as the rest of the house - shabby chic (exposed brickwork, heavy roman blinds, old wooden furniture, heavy wooden door with leather on the inside and tango pictures on the wall.  I later found out that the house was owned by a male tango dancer - hence the South American cafe theme I think. It took me back a bit initially but I now quite like its quirkiness and, for all its shabby-chicness and initial dosshouse appearance, its spotlessly clean and the bathroom is modern.

Due to having a cold I wasn’t that hungry so went to the nearest cafe and had a glass of ginger lemonade and plate of Perogies (steamed meat and mushroom dumplings - alls I can say is thank goodness I wasn’t hungry.  Managed to eat 3 of the cloying dumplings covered in lard before giving up.

Day 10.

Best nights sleep so far - lovely comfy bed and once I got past the bells from St Marys Church going every 15 minutes and the Bugler on the hour throughout the night, I was fine.  Nice to wake up to bells rather than an alarm clock, although you do start counting the dongs.  By the way, the Bugler only plays a couple of bars then stops suddenly.

The story of the Bugler - (or Trumpeter of Krakow, as is more commonly known)

Legend has it that during the invasion by the Mongols, there was a watch tower and a guy with a bugle.   The said watchman spotted the Mongols advancing on the city and started to play his warning, the Mongols, not to happy with their surprise being spoilt, fired an arrow which hit him in the neck and killed him hence the sudden stop.  This is just a legend though as my guide this morning told us that this was made up about 100 years ago by a guide that was asked the question by a tourist and didn’t know the answer so improvised, although he did also say that it was logical (being a history graduate) as the Mongol bit was true and the watch tower bit was also true.

I learnt all this from the ‘Historical Tour of Krakow’ that I did this morning with Callen (or big Tom or Tom the giant as he’s also known as), a Krakovian born and breed, he even went to Krakow University to study history and showed us round his old Uni.

Other things learnt - Krakow and Poland has a very chequered history, independent, part of a coalition of country’s (namely with Lithuania), independent again, then after the war was swallowed up by Russia from the east as with other countries and Germany From the West at the same time, before going back to  independance under the communist regime eventually breaking free mid 1980’s.  Callen was at pains to impress on us that they are a bunch of miserable f***ers as they have all the stories of oppression drummed into them from an early age.

All of the above being said, Callen gave a very entertaining tour so well worth the £0 spent on it (it was free - tips only so a bunged him a zloty or thirty).  We covered all the main sights, Wawel Castle and the Arch-Cathedral with its dragon story and the story of the dragons bone that if it fell from the entrance to the Cathedral we were all doomed - not sure how that fits with being at the entrance to a famous Catholic Church but hey ho!,  Arch-bishops House (Pope John-Paul II was arch-bishop of Krakow), he obviously felt comfortable with having a dragons bone over the entrance to his place of work when he was just a lowly Arch-Bishop.

Also, how there was an underground world to the Market Square due to the street level being raised because of  the amount of dirt and effluence built up over the years.  When they were doing some excavations around 2005 they found a whole new world below the square.

Krakow was a very important trade town and once the Capital of Poland, so have lots of external influences.  It was definitely ahead of its time though as it had female Kings as it was about the role you did not your gender - qudos to Krakow.