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Memorial for poet Nathan Gross. He wrote the poem "Cyganeria"
the Cyganeria cafe was a gathering place of Nazi officers which was
bombed by the ressistance.

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Krakow, Poland (2008)

We flew to Poland out of Moscow through Minsk, Belarus.  For those of you who might think about flying to Russia or around the region, I would suggest to avoid Belarus if at all possible.  We simply bought the cheapest tickets from Moscow to Poland, and those happened to be through Belarus.  But, it’s a scam.  When you land in Minsk, they make you pay $180 as a “transit fee” (Americans pay the 180, but everyone else gets to pay a bit less).  Also, the security is stupid.  You go through the normal security procedures—taking off your shoes, belt, etc.  It’s all good, and you get yourself together again.  You walk around the corner and then suddenly you have to do the security all over again with nothing in between the two security stations other than a short corridor.  Anyway, we eventually got out of there and into Warsaw, where we figured out how to get a bus to the train to go to Krakow. In one day we finished Krakow.  We actually didn’t expect to do it so quickly, and had allocated 2 full days to it.

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The Barbican, a main defensive structure just outside the city walls.

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Entrance to the Old Town, this gate was built in 1307.  First, we zigzagged our way through the touristy area of Old Town.  Old Town was very pleasant, peaceful and felt safe.  It was a relaxing change to the high action of Moscow.

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Go Angels!

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The lively and heavily touristic Old Town square.

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Traditional Polish music and dance.

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Old Town clock tower.

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As seen from the clock tower.

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Head statue.

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The Dominican church.

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Inside one of the Old Town churches.

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Nice stained glass window of God, or an old guy dancing in a club.

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At the end of Old Town was the 10th century Wawel Castle, which is the pride of Poland because it survived while the rest of the country was being flattened by non-stop wars throughout its history

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Entrance to Wawel.

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Wawel king.

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On our way out, we checked out the Dragon’s Den, where it is said that some guy killed a dragon.  Here, I do my best impression of some guy.

 

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Where the dragon used to chill.

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The statue of the dragon outside the cave would sporadically unleash belches of fire that amused the kids to no end.

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Next, we walked a few minutes to Kazimierz, which is the former Jewish quarter.  It was nice to see too many synagogues packed together as a refreshing contrast to the typical too many churches packed together. 

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Inside Tempel Synagogue built in 1860.

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We stopped for lunch at a Frommer’s recommended restaurant for pierogi, which are essentially dumplings, but you can pick any range of fillings.  For instance, Carmel got spinach in hers, while I got strawberries in mine. 

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We wandered for another hour more, then ran into another Frommer’s recommended restaurant called Bagelmama (the bagel is said to have been invented in Krakow).  We poked our heads in out of curiosity, and saw that they even sold burritos and had some good looking guacamole.  As Americanly as possible, we stuffed in yet another meal though we were not hungry. 

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Next, we walked across this bridge and off the beaten path a bit to Podgórze, which was where all the Jews of Kazimierz had to move to during WWII.  We walked up the hill and into a pleasant park, where we found a bench under some shade and rested/napped there for about an hour. 

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Freckly couple in the sun.

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St. Joseph church.

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We then headed up to the Krakus Mound with a decent view of Krakow.  The Mound was raised in the 7th century and is the burial place of King Krak, the founder of Krakow. 

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Next, we headed back into the center of Podgórze and found the square with a chair-memorial where all the Jews of Podgórze were killed by the Nazis.

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A brief 10 minute walk from there led us to Schindler’s factory (i.e., Schindler’s List).

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We left Podgórze and returned to Old Town for a quick rest at a café before catching a classical concert (including Poland’s Chopin) in one of the churches.

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Outside the concert.

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Adjacent church.

 

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For dinner, we wandered the square a bit looking for another Frommer’s recommended restaurant, but were distracted by a breakdance show. We finally found the restaurant, got a quick bite to eat, and retired back to our hostel for the night.

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"Edim beMadim" (Witnesses in Uniform), a journey taken with fighters who are currently taking a course to become battalion commanders in the IDF
From: Nadav H nadav.horenstein@gmail.com

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"Edim beMadim" (Witnesses in Uniform), a journey taken with fighters who are currently taking a course to become battalion commanders in the IDF
From: Nadav H nadav.horenstein@gmail.com

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"Edim beMadim" (Witnesses in Uniform), a journey taken with fighters who are currently taking a course to become battalion commanders in the IDF
From: Nadav H nadav.horenstein@gmail.com