10/07 Krakow, Poland

woke up at 0330. Walked to Warsaw central to take a train at 0428 to Krakow, former capital of Poland. It took 2.5 hours. They did not have ICE. The train was quite slow. I slept a lot in the train. I got out the train station and walked towards the old town.

The entrance of the old town had a barbakan, which was red and very nice. I passed through it and got.to.the main gate to the old town. I found the hostel which was very closed to the main square, just 3mins walk. The hostel polish girl was pretty. I put my beg in the luggage room and got a map from her. First, I joined a free walking tour of old town and met others at the S.t Mary church.

Many people were there and the tour guide was a lady but her English was not as good as the one in Warsaw but still can understand it generally. She gathered us and first talked about the church. A Guy at the highest window played pumplet, which was nice but.had no ending.

It was believed it was used to warn people in town if someone was coming to attack. Then we walked to a university in town and saw something coming out from the little door with music being played. I met a Australian Guy living in perths who was nice but sometimes a bit weird we got inside a exhibition but nth special.  We then left to a mini garden near the market, talking about the pope, priest in Poland.

I have no interest in polosh pope, so did not pay much attention. Then, we headed towards the Wawel Castle. I like castle and this one was no exception. We had to walked uphill along the path with red walls next to us showing the name of people who made contribution to the castle.

The castle was beautiful.  The guide said the Polish king loved Renaissance in ltaly and then made a copy of it.

And he only had enough money to place gold on the roof of one of them. Then, we walked inside a line of palace where I could see a big open space.

It had 3floor and the third floor was higher than 2rd as he wanted to build a higher window and have more light penetrated into the room. So, the columns were higher that those on 2rd floor. And because of fire, part of the building was reconstructed and so only part of wall painting was found as the rest was burnt. Then we walked to a dragon statue. Dragon was the symbol of Krakow. The dragon was quite small and many kids climbed on it.

I was told that the dragon could release fire but today could not. We dismissed there. I walked up back to the castle. I got inside the church with no ticket. I don't know if I need to buy one or not but no one checked at that time. The church was quite large and quite grand. I got out and bought two cups made in poland for mum and sis.

Then, I took a Polaroid there and rushed back to the main square to join the Jewish tour. We walked to the Jewish quarter. The guide's English was quite hard to hear. He spoke fast but no very clear and with his ascent. The weird and crazy Australian guy were there too. We walked to some places I forgot as I could not catch what he said. Then, we crossed a nice bridge and again many padlocks were locked there.

We stopped at a former hospital for Jews. I was told that Nazi would kill those alive there. We then walked to a place where had a lot of chairs standing there.

It was a place to commemorate the dead Jews. It was like the Holocaust in Berlin but this time was chairs. Then we walked to Schiller Factory where Schiller employed Jews to work here and try to save them. As it was already closed. I did nit get inside and out tour also dismissed there.

I walked back to the square with the Australian guy. He was crazily funny LOL. We said goodbye at some point as I went to buy a pizza to eat cuz I did not have time for lunch. It was quite good!

I walked back to the square and back to hostel. Saw those messy London boys. Then, I walked to square to buy things to drink. The night was very nice. There were people having performance at the square.

And I found there was a mini red light district. But no girls at the window. Perhaps was a night club. I went back to hostel and slept early. what a tiring day.

09/07 Warsaw, Poland

I woke up at 8am as I had not visited any attraction here so far and I was gonna leave tmr.

First, I bought some bread for breakfast at carrarfour and walked to the museum of science and technology. The building looked nice but did not get inside.

Then, I walked to the garden where a palace and castle were located. It took around 20mins walk. The park was quite big and nice. I walked to a statue surrounded by water.

Then, walked to a palace. It was being repaired and so I could not see the whole thing as part of it was covered. And the palace was quite small, should not be called as a palace. The view of it from a river was nice.

 

 

Then I walked to a "castle". Technically it was not a castle and was quite small. Then, I left the park and took a free-ride bus to the old town. I asked a Polish pretty girl about which stop to take. Generally I think Polish girls are quite pretty. I got off at old town. Wow..It was beautiful.

I bought a icecream neaby and walked to the statue where was the meeting point of a free walking tour I was going to join. The tour guide was nice and friendly. It took around 2hours to walk around the old town. First, he talked about the statue which was replaced twice and was built to commemorate the Polish king. He also told us Krakow was the old capital of Poland but he moved the capital to Warsaw as it was more central and farther from Austria. Then, we walked a bit inside the old town and stopped at a shop with a pigeon on top of a door. I did not remember all but probably about a woman feeding the pigeons. Then, we stopped at a half-woman-half-animal thing.

He told us there was a story behind that the thing always sang songs to seduce men, and so women hated it and put it inside a cage. A man set him free but she did not want to leave Warsaw. So, it became a symbol of Warsaw and as the men had a name with War and the thing had a name with szawa.. so it was named Warsazwa. Interesting story. We then walked toward to a plaque on the ground and it said Warsaw became on the list of UNSEO as it was rebuilt in a very authentic way. The market was nice.

People sitting under the unmbrella, having lunch. He later showed us a symbol with PW in one symbol and it means Poland fight in Polish, kinda encouraging people to fight until the end. Interesting to know. We then headed to the new town and passed through a gate which was nice. At new town, we stopped at a museum of a famous Polish woman. Her family won a lot of 諾貝爾獎 and she got one too by discovering two new chemicals, one of which was named PO, probably because it meaned Poland.















Then, we walked to a kind of border of a Jewish ghetto which was a home to many Jewish in Poland.

Now is only 600 Jewish living in Poland. He talked about how Jewish was sent and killed in an efficient way, which sounded scary. We then walked to court of supreme, which was designed by a famous designer.

In his opinion, the three statues symbolize three things but people thought it symbolized his two daughters and his wife LOL. Then we walked down a bit and passed through a plague which showed the full spending of PW.

We stopped at another big statue. The first was about solider fighting againist USSR or Nazi ( I forgot) and the second one showed that a solider was fleeing by getting inside a underground sewage system.

We then headed back to the old town and stopped at a church which was built by a king.

There were 4 statue on the wall and only John did not have bears and he said Jahn statue had a face of the king and this church perhaps was to commemorate him. The tour ended and I gave him some tips. He was really good. I would know nth about the old town without joining a local tour. What a history lesson in Warsaw!  I really liked it.

Then, I walked inside the church which was fine. I bought a orange ice though it was not really tasted orange.

I walked along the street and a boy with a girl suddenly asked me if I liked Justin Bieber and of course I said no!! he seemed a big fan of him. I met them again in a sourvenir shops. I then walked around the old town and got inside the new town again. New town I thought was just for people to eat as there was not much to see. And I met them again at new town. Then, we chatted a bit in English and he was really crazy. The girl was fine but not as crazy as he was.

He screamed out loud in polish, ran around, did weird thing, made fun of someone etc. Was every fan of JB crazy?!!!? then, I stopped are Zagieck and said goodbye to them. It was a.restaurant famous for dumplings. I had a dumplings with sweet cream and strawberry, which was delicious but it was quite a lot for one person.

It was raining outside. I got inside some sourvenir to wait for the rain to stop. I bought a leather bags for coins. Rains became light and I left the old town and took a book to university. I walked towards the bridge. The view of both side were nice and I could see the national stadium. Then, I walked back to hostel and cook food for dinner. Watched half of a World cup match of the Netherlands against Argentina and then slept. What a long but happy day!!!