On Thursday we had to checkout of our apartment by 10am. We planned to get up early and run before checkout, but ended up scrapping that idea when we woke up to 4C temperatures. We ate breakfast and packed up our stuff…luckily we were running ahead of time because the apartment rep. arrived at 9:35am and just stood in the corner and watched us as we finished our packing. Awkward to say the least and kind of rude, considering we had agreed together on a checkout time of 10am.
We walked over to the train station and locked up our luggage. We also exchanged some Polish Zloty for Euros, which we needed to pay for the rest of our apartment stay in Budapest, our next stop. We then set out back into the main town area. We had 12 hours to kill before our overnight train departed to Budapest. Of course, on the way into town, we picked up another bagel ring. We love those things.
*Advertisement we saw at the train station; at the end of our trip, we will have only missed Kolonia (Cologne, Germany)
We started at a cafe, talking about souvenir ideas over coffee and tea. We then walked through the Cloth Hall in the center of the Main Market Square, which is basically just a tourist shop at this point. We may have picked up a thing or two...
*Inside the Cloth Hall
We proceeded to lunch at a recommended pizzeria which was pretty awesome. We split some grilled vegetables, a couple of beers, and a really, really spicy pizza. Delicious, but the burning didn't cease until at least 15 minutes after the last bite. We then went back into the Market Square. At this point, the sky was sunny and clear (although the air was quite chilly). We got a couple of cool pictures.
We then set out to the Jewish Quarter, called Kazimierz. The walk through the park along the way was nice.
While many Jewish families lived in this area of Krakow up until WWII, now only about 700 Jews reside in the city. This area has seen a revitalization since the movie Schindler's List, which was partly filmed there. The area itself, somewhat rundown but very charming, also lent itself to some great pics. We even saw an old man selling flowers while reading a porn magazine. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to discreetly snap a pic.
*Daryl asked me to take this pic...reminded him of how people reserve parking spots in South Boston
*The only picture of the porn-reading flower seller we were able to get
After the Jewish Quarter, we stopped at one of the two big malls in the city to look for a running toque for Daryl and running gloves for both of us. The morning temperatures have gotten too cold to stand. Unfortunately we were not successful, but this did leave us a long walk back into the main part of town along the Vistula River, during which we witnessed great fading light. Here are a couple of pictures that we snapped of a really pretty bridge.
The night ended at a Austrian-style beer hall, which was again recommended. Unfortunately, this recommendation sucked. While the beers were large (mine was only 0.4L, but Daryl's was 1L) and the portions huge, the food was subpar. My veggies were over-boiled (i.e., inedible) and my dish was bland. While Daryl's was somewhat better it was far from stellar. Oh well, I guess every meal can't be excellent.
We walked back along the Planty (the parkland lining the Old Town) and to the train station. Along the way, we stopped at a grocery store and spent our remaining cash on some more Polish vodka (the Bison brand of course) and candy for the train. The train came in on time and the sleeping quarters were clean and respectable. Unfortunately, we both struggled to sleep again, due to vibration and sound.
While we arrived in Budapest safe and sound, the arrival was less than optimal. Find out more in our next post...
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