Cracking Cracovia - A weirdo's tale.

This time last week, I was in Krakow. A few weeks previously, I'd felt the need for an adventure rise up in my soul and so set about searching for a likely place. I have a list of destinations I'd like to try and visit over the next two years, and Krakow was one of them. So, after spending two straight days checking out flight prices, flight times, hotel/hostel prices and local temperature, I settled on crossing Krakow off of my list.

After the brilliant time I had in Prague, I decided to go alone again. Shortly before I left though, I had a conversation with a friend who pointed out that it was possible my behaviour marked me out as being a bit weird. She wasn't being cruel, or horrible, merely stating that perhaps some people considered it odd that I just go off by myself and do things.

This got me thinking; Am I a massive weirdo? Am I? She's right - I don't mind going off and doing things on my own. Though it's definitely not because I prefer my own company to that of others. Most of the time, it's just practical. I want to go and see a film/an exhibition/eat something somewhere, etc. Depending on what it is, I ask people who I think might be interested if they want to go too. Usually, though, it's a 'no', due to time, money, other commitments  Does that mean I should then not go and do something because doing it alone is seen as odd?  

My main group of friends is quite large, which means a lot of negotiation and advance notice has to take place if you want to get as many people as possible together. Everyone lives in different parts of the country, or in other countries. Also, everyone likes to do different things when they're away. I personally, like to spend a good 6-8 hours on my first day in a new place walking around and looking at stuff. Not everyone is up for an eight hour trek around though. And I know this, and I don't want to inflict my preferences on anyone else. Equally though, if I've paid to be in a new place, I kind of want to get to know it. I want to get a bit lost in it. And I like to explore. I like the challenge of being in a new place and having to figure out how it works. And I know I'm talking about Eastern Europe and not the Amazonian rain-forest and so by and large it isn't that challenging... But it's fun for me. I like to go and eat local food and not be 100% sure what it is. I like getting my free map at the airport and learning how all the streets fit together. I like sitting in cafes and bars and restaurants and listening to people talk, even if I can't understand it.

When I'm on my own, I'm forced to get more involved. I have to talk to locals and ask questions. I have to ask for help with things. I think that's good for me. It means I have let go of all the London-inhibitions I have about smiling on the street and communicating with people. It's either put myself out there and ask, or sit in my hotel room with a book until it's time to go home. And getting out there usually pays off as I find things off the beaten track I'd never have discovered as part of a group.

Also, there's no guarantee anyone I know will want to go with me to the places I want to go. But I don't think that should be enough to stop me from going. I don't want to be a person who sits at home, waiting for things to happen. I want to make them happen. I don't think this makes me particularly brave, or intrepid, or go-getting. I still think an experience shared builds the best memories. But at the same time, I'm the one who got landed with the job of living my life. So I think I have to live it the way that makes me happiest. And travelling, alone or in a group, is one of the things that makes me happiest. 

So - Krakow! 

Landed fine, met at the airport by a lovely man with a sign (I wonder if that will ever stop being a novelty) and onwards to the hostel. This was my fifth hostel experience and I've never been failed yet. They've all been lovely and this one had the added bonus of each room having its own shower and sink. And free breakfast, which I took ridiculous advantage of.

On my first day, I did the aforementioned 'walking around until my feet try and make a break for it on their own' thing. I got out my map, and marked it with the locations of the hostel, some bookshops, a cafe and a pub, and set off. Only to realise after about two hours and every shop being closed, that I'd rocked up on a religious holiday. I found this out in Massolit Books, which is an amazing second-hand English bookshop-come-cafe, secreted outside of Planty, the park that runs in place of the town walls around the Old Town. I asked the lady who told me this what I should do instead and she told me to 'Eat and drink. That's what everyone else will do.'

I took this advice to heart, stopping first for hot chocolate before walking down to Kaziemierz. Kaziemierz is the Jewish Quarter in Krakow, and I whiled away a lovely few hours wandering from synagogue to cemetary. Then to Old Town to go to the Pierogi festival. And I went NUTS. I had six - six delicious Polish dumplings and a beer and watched the band play. After that all died down, I headed off to try and find the Middle Earth pub, as I'd heard there was one in town, celebrating all things Tolkien.

Sadly, it had closed the year before, but I stayed for a drink anyway, before going to take some not-very-good night-time shots of Rynek Glowny all lit up. 

Day two dawned and it was the day of the Auschwitz I - Auschwitz Birkenau visit. 

It's every bit as harrowing as you'd imagine it to be. This was compounded by the fact is was an absolutely beautiful day. So I'm walking through this place of absolute horror, in sunshine, and watching groups of people walking the same paths once walked by the imprisoned. 

The contrast between the past and the present was stark and terrible, and yet I'm glad I went. I'm glad I saw the evidence of the evil that happened there. It served as a hard reminder that it's all too easy to dehumanise people, based on their colour, gender, sexuality, religion, ethnicity and lifestyle. It's easy to be scared of what you don't understand, to fear what's different. But, as the George Santayana quote says; 'Those who do not remember history are bound to repeat it.' We have to remember. And we have to make sure, somehow, that this is never allowed to happen again. 

In the afternoon, I just wandered about again, soaking up Poland as it is now, how it's rebuilt itself and, whilst always acknowledging the part it was forced to play during World War II, how it's striving to create a multicultural and tolerant place where all are welcomed. They're doing a bang-up job, too. I had another hot chocolate, bought a few bits (including the ubiquitous Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the native tongue) and then went back to the hostel for a bit of quiet time. Dinner was me being very brave and wandering the streets around midnight looking for the Kielbasa van. Found it, ate at it, loved it.

Friday was zoo day! Zoo day is one of the traditions I seem to have developed when I go to a new place. I like to go to the local zoo. Or animal park. Or aquarium. Or, failing that, Natural History Museum. But there will be a day when I'll wop out the camera and take some very suspect photos of animals. In another life, I would have been a wildlife photographer. In another life, I'd know how to compose a shot, but that's another story.

Krakow zoo is lovely. It's being redeveloped at the moment, so some of the enclosures are still of the nasty concrete and iron bar variety. But the majority are huge and airy and have enrichment activities to keep the animals occupied and alert. The keepers are friendly and knowledgeable and none of the animals exhibited any signs of depressed behaviour.

On the contrary, a fair number seemed hell bent on getting their end away. I witnessed a very public threesome between some of the baboons. I could have lived my whole life without seeing that. And the tortoises were going at it too, although I've never ever been to a zoo and not seen the tortoises making love. People say 'at it like rabbits', but I think it's the tortoises you've got to watch. Also, I did take that photo of the tiger above. That's one of mine. Every now and then, I can just about manage a decent photo or two.

The best thing at Krakow zoo were the bees! They had an... enclosure, for want of a better word, for honey bees, in their own hives, which are part of the zoo. And the honey the bees make? Oh they just sell that at the zoo in the HONEY VENDING MACHINE. Seriously, a machine that vends the honey made 100m away by the bees that live there. There was a video screen which told you how it was collected and which flowers the bees fed on. And then you could buy the honey right there. Now that's organic.


After the zoo (which I got to and from by navigating public transport, which was quick, easy and efficient and not the trial I made it out to be) I went to Wawel Hill, to have a gander at the castle and go into the Dragon's Den. No, not the tellybox show. The actual Dragon's Den. Legend has it that Krakow was founded by the mythical ruler Krakus, who built it above a cave occupied by a dragon, Smok Wawelski. and, at the top of Wawel Hill, you can descend down a dizzying spiral staircase into a cave under the castle hill, where the dragon is reputed to have lived. I like caves. It made me happy. That night I took myself out for a fancy dinner, wined and dined and ate wild boar and Baileys mousse and imbibed some fancy vodkas, and then pottered on back to the hostel for my last night. 

My last half day consisted of more walking and sampling foods that I hadn't tried yet. I ate Pączki and Smalec and enjoyed one a lot more than the other (Google if you want to try and deduce it). And then home-sadface-bloody England-preferred it when the Olympics were on.

And there ends my adventure in Krakow. I had a brilliant time, met some nice people, ate some ace food, drank some amazing beers and vodkas, learned lots of new things, saw tons of new things, walked on new streets and hopefully broadened my horizons a little more.
As for being a weirdo... I suppose it could be worse. I can live with it.