Highlights from Krakow

This past weekend I traveled to Poland, specifically Warsaw and Krakow, to meet with CESRI fellows and IIE staff for a debrief.

If I had to pick out my favorite thing about Krakow, I would pick hanging out with all the CESRI fellows and IIE staff. It was really nice to see everyone again after 7 weeks in our seperate countries and to hear all about the various projects and experiences of each of the other scholars. It was also great to see Chris and Agi from Budapest and to meet Vijay (with whom I had many phone conversations with) and Mark, the creator of the CESRI program. Chris had impeccable dining taste (he really should write a guidebook) and took us to the most fantastic restaurants in Krakow where we tried dishes such as roast duck, grilled pheasant, blueberry peirogies, and delightful borsh (beet soup). We also took advantage of the large number of people (one table for one shot means just trying a sip of each drink) to sample a large variety of polish vodkas including the incredibly smooth Zubrowka, herbal Wodka Zoladkow Gorzka, and hot honey vodka. We also tried freshly squeezed bison grass (green but rather tasty) and mint apple juice. Needless to say, the weekend was a culinary treat.

But I also experienced a lovely culture and two beautiful cities. Since it was cheaper to fly to Warsaw than Krakow, Cau (CESRI scholar in Marburg) and I flew to Warsaw to stay with Mike, another CESRI fellow who studied in Warsaw this summer. Mike lived in Warsaw until he was 14, so he spoke fluent Polish and could show us around town. We visited the palace of culture and discovered yummy polish pastries. We then took the express train from Warsaw to Krakow (under 3 hours on a track devoted to high speed trains, excellent). In Krakow, we stayed in a hotel jut outside the Floridian gate of the old city. Since we were so close we spent time exploring the lovely inner city. In my own opinion, Krakow ranks far above Prague. Prague was lovely but incredibly crowded and seemed quite dirty (unwashed buildings, dirty streets, etc). Krakow on the other hand contained a lot of tourists, but the wide medievel walkways and large marketplace could handle the large crowd of tourists (one guidebook said that restaurants on the main square could easily hold over 1000 people at one time, which I think was a low number). The main square contained the cloth hall which still served as a marketplace where shopkeepers sold traditional Polish boxes, amber, embroidery, and leathergoods in stalls over 500 years old. Krakow also seemed to host more street entertainment with Polish quartets, Klesmer bands, marionette puppets, and even an elaborate puppet opera could be found on evenings. One never tired of things to see in Krakow. Even after three solid days of touring, including a guided tour of the Nicolas Copernicus Museum with our Polish guide, I found myself yearning for a monthlong stay.

On Sunday, after Chris and Agi left and we finished our powerpoint presentations, we had to fend for ourself gastonomically. However, since krakow is the culinary capital of Poland, we had no trouble finding lovely cafes for a sit down meal and even found yummy snacks on the main square. I tasted my first sheep cheese (squeaky) and fried apple pancakes. We even found restaurants with complimentary pig lard (no joke). To get out of the city on a hot day, we traveled to the Weiczocka salt mines, where 600 years of rock salt mining and artists produced spectacular caves full of statues and chapels. The cool salty air helped clear out our lungs to the point that we all began coughing once we emerged from the mine 3 hours later. After the mine, we grabbed some more sheep's cheese and black current juice and headed to a concert in a recently restored Baroque cathedral. After relishing the amazing accoustics and gilded altars, we traveled to a polish cafe where we all "shared a bed" together as we tried the soup parade of traditional polish soups or dined on 10 different types of meat (I didn't know there were that many). After dinner, the night was still young, so we headed off towards the jewish quarter where Eric showed us his superpowers. After a round of drinks, we began a rousing rendition of Big Booty (video here) with small breaks of zoom and piffle. The calm atmosphere of the jewish quarter was a welcome difference to crazy fireworks displays of the city center. Then around 2am in the morning...we finally headed back to the hotel for a short nap, before some of use arose early to visit the state apartments of Wawel castle and cathedral and the ornate cathedral of St. Mary's (no pictures allowed inside but here is a link to the websites).

I finished off Monday with a final visit to the cloth hall and a leather shop down the street. Then Mike and I met at the train station (see previous post) and I returned safely back to Marburg.

I don't have a whole lot of pictures from this trip, but Mike just posted some excellent photos with his blog post.

You can read the post here.


My photos can be seen here

Poland