I arrived late on the evening of February 11 after a fairly horrific 40ish hours travel time, that included 12 hours trapped in Frankfurt airport, a flight cancelled due to snow, and getting into a fight with some German jerk who thought I'd just let him shove in front of me in queue.
Anyway, Poland has been interesting so far. My first morning at the lovely Good Bye Lenin hostel I woke to the following view:
"Imperialist enemies tempt you with coca-cola."
This is one of the walls in the kitchen/basement/pub of the hostel - I got a kick out of it.
But I couldn't stay in the hostel forever, so last Thursday I moved into an apartment in Kazimierz, about 15 minutes walk south from the city centre. I have my own room, and am sharing with a couple of Polish students, two girls both in their twenties.
My new room - home sweet home.
Aside from finding a place to live, I haven't done anything too exciting yet. Most days I go walking around Krakow, getting to know the sites and the layout of the city. I've finally tried pierogi, and every day I learn a few more words of Polish.
The city is made up of a combination of gorgeous old buildings, and slightly less-gorgeous buildings from the soviet-era. I took this on my way to the big mall. It's a pretty good example of what the streets look like here. Lots of big buildings, with shops on the bottom level and apartments above. I now live above a convenience store, and I've discovered at least 3 op shops within a block or two of my apartment.
I took this in the planty, which is a ring of grass and trees that encircles the city centre. It makes for a lovely walk, and I anticipate that once the snow has melted will make an ideal spot to have a picnic and read a book.
This church is in Rynek Główny, the main square in the city centre. There are lots of old churches scattered throughout the city, and nuns galore. I see them on the tram, in the supermarket, walking down the street. It's very strange, coming from such a godless land as I do.
And just for fun, one of me dressed in my winter finest on one of my rambles through the city. Fun fact: every time I go into a warm building after being outside, my glasses fog up completely and I can't see a thing. Good times.
2 comments:
I decided to comment first of all to say "Hi", second of all to ask you how you like Kraków, third of all to tell you that you can buy an anti-fog glasses spray at the opticians (very good product) and lastly to show you that someone is reading your blog so you should write and write and write....
Hi Chris, thanks! I'll definitely keep writing then. :D
I like Krakow a lot, it's beautiful and so varied, and so easy to travel around. The cute little cafes and pubs everywhere is pretty great too.
I'll have to check local opticians for this spray. I hadn't heard of it before.
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