Monday, February 16, 2009

How to perfectly chill a Diet Coke

Did I ever tell you about the time I went to Krakow? Well, it was a lovely winter weekend, and I'm using the word "lovely" very loosely. I must add that this is against the advice of my friend Kasia who strongly discouraged me from visiting Krakow between November and March. Anyway, my friend Chris and I took the long train from Prague to Krakow, where we met with my friend Colleen. We stayed at a great hostel called Blue hostel (on the recommendation of my friend Abby – good call!). It's close to the old town and the train station, cheap, clean and has a very nice owner. Since we all got in late – after 10pm – on Friday night, we were ready to really see the city on Saturday morning. We headed out in search of some food and to see what we could see. We came armed with a ton of site and food suggestions from a variety of friends with Poland/Krakow experience. We ended up not seeing much due to the snow.


But we found a bakery and tried some new foods. We had a pasty filled with we think cabbage but we couldn't quite figure out the flavors. Then we headed around to the barbican to do the royal walk. By now, it was snowing pretty hard and continued through most of the day.

We stopped in the Czartoryski Museum- once we found it after walking right past it. For just a few dollars (even less with my student ID), we saw not only some really nice art, but a da Vinci and a Rembrandt. Nice. Well worth our time, even if it had not been snowing. Next stop was lunch. Colleen had a pierogi she wanted to see so we went there.

I had the mix plate with pierogi 3 ways - meat, potato and cheese, and mushroom.

I convinced Chris to try the kvas - a non-alcoholic drink made from rye bread. It smells yeasty but tastes much better than it sounds.

We headed out again and spent the afternoon touring a number of churches.

First, we stopped by the Cloth Hall - I had to buy a magnet to add to my collection. I opted for the dragon. He should look good next to the beer mug from Munich, the adelweiss from Salzburg and the phone booth from London.

It was also a good place to escape from the snow for a few minutes.



We visited St. Mary's.

This church has a very famous, old, beautiful alter piece so they have 2 doors. One door for tourists (paid-entry) and one for those who want to pray. The inside of the church is divided during the touring hours.

And St. Adalbert...I mean how do you skip a church named after St. Adalbert!

It was very small, with maybe a half dozen pews, round in shape and preparing for Saturday evening Mass.

I wanted to see some of the Cardinal Wojtyła/Pope John Paul II sites so we headed to the Archbishop's Mansion, where we saw the Pope! Okay, not really...

They have a poster of him in the window where he used to live. Kind of cheesy but I like it!









St. Francis' where JPII served when he was the Archbishop really impressed me.

They have a sliver plaque where JPII used to sit to pray (when he was the Archbishop) in a pew at the back of church. I wondered if anyone actually sits in that spot during Mass...

And then a few more churches...the snow really made things beautiful - when it wasn't blowing in our faces - but also distorted the city too, like on these statues in front of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Not that you can really see in this photo...
Anyway, after a rest at the hostel, we went back to out to dinner. We went Chłopskie Jadło. It was kind of kitschy but we liked it. Good food and good atmosphere - a must with Colleen and I! Next to us was a group four Irish people - 2 couples. They asked what we were eating and we were glad to give a review!

On Sunday, Chris went to Auschwitz, so Colleen and I were on our own for a while. We headed out to the Jewish Quarter. Our first stop was the Remu'h Synagogue. Inside were a number of men, Orthodox (? so we think due to their prayer paraphernalia and dress and the side curls) Jews, praying and taking pictures of themselves praying an d posing in the synagogue. It was a really new experience for both of us to see.

The guidebook describes the difference between the Prague Jewish Quarter and the one in Krakow as well, different. My basic description is that the area in Krakow is a living, breathing Jewish community with active synagogues. Prague's area is a museum district. Both really amazing in their own ways. While in that area, we visited the Old Cemetary....


and then walked around, taking note of the other important sites like the Old Synagogue, the High Synagogue and then the market...

and appreciating the idea of the golf cart tours...







and then it was time for lunch. We stopped at a little self-serve place and I got a full meal for 14 Polish złoty or about $3.50. I ate something called bigos, which is about 90% cabbage with some meat, mushrooms and plums thrown for flavor.

After lunch we headed across the river to the former Jewish ghetto and saw the monument of empty chairs in Ghetto Heroes' Square and the outside of Schindler's factory.


After the Jewish Quarter, we headed to the castle.


By this time, it had started to really snow again. Here is my view from the foot of the castle before we headed up.

We fought our way through the wind and snow to the top, turned the corner and headed for the cathedral. By this time - about 10 minutes - here is what we saw....
Yes. Sunshine and blue sky. We toured the cathedral, saw the groovy chair that the archbishop sits in and headed for the royal apartments. Unfortunately, we only got to the courtyard because we failed to read in the guidebook that last entry is one hour before closing. We read that it was free on Sundays and that it closed at 4:00. We missed that. :(
On our way back through town, we took more photos since it wasn't snowing and we had some daylight. The snow didn't hold off completely and we did hit a few more showers.

Overall, though it was a great trip. It could have been better weather-wise but we just laughed at our ridiculous situation and made the best of it. We explored a variety of eating establishments - meaning we looking in windows, walked in doors, but didn't eat at all of them. We tried a lot of Polish foods - I have to admit that I prefer Czech food. Maybe I'm biased.

So, why the title of this post? On Saturday, I bought a Diet Coke - or Coca-Cola light as they are known here - from a tabak, or street vendor. Although it was in a refrigerator case, it was "room temperature" or not even as cold as the air, by far. I kept it in the outside pocket of my backpack and drank from it all day. By the end of the day, when there was about 1/3 left, I realized that it was now the pefect temperature for drinking - or perfectly chilled.

On a final note, about halfway home to Prague, a family joined us in our compartment. At some point along the way, the little girl, around age 5, said "Ježíš Marie" the ubiquitous Czech curse/blaspheme. You gotta love it!

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