My weekend in Krakow

This weekend some of the IAESTE trainees in Košice and I traveled to Krakow, Poland for the IAESTE Central European Meeting (ICEM). We all had a great weekend!

On Thursday night we took a night train that left one hour late at 12:04am. While we waited for the train Danielle, who is from Canada, and I taught the group a card game, P´s and A´s. Fortunately the train wasn´t that crowded so we were able to spread out in a few compartments to get a little more space to sleep during the night. The only problem was that the conductors kept coming in to ask for our tickets and passports. Magda, my room mate from Poland, thought it was wierd that they were asking for our passports because you aren´t supposed to need them when going between EU countries.

We arrived in Krakow at about 6 in the morning and there were a couple of IAESTE Krakow members waiting to take us to the dorms. They helped us find ATMs and Exchange offices to get some Polish Zloty and then bought us transporation tickets so that we could take the tram to our dorm. We checked in at the dorm and received a lanyard name tag, a t-shirt, and tourist information about Krakow. I was in a room with Dubravka, who is from Bosnia Herzegovina, and Maria, who is the daughter of Martin´s boss and who was just joining our group for this trip. In the room next to ours was Martin, who is from Austria, and Stephen, who is from the U.S. These two rooms shared a bathroom with two other rooms. In one of them was Danielle and Maria, who is from Spain. In the other there were three guys who were IAESTE trainees from another city.

At about 11am the whole IAESTE group, which was about 100 people, left on two coach buses for Auschwitz. We had a guided tour of Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz-Birkinau which lasted all afternoon. We also saw a video about the camps. I was surprised at how much of the camps were still intact and not destroyed. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the buildings of all of the glasses, hair, shoes, luggage, etc. but I did take a few outside.

We got back to the city about 6pm, took showers and headed out for the evening in the Krakow city center. Magda took us to a very inexpensive restaurant where we had traditional Polish food. I had breaked pork chop with potatoes and cabbage. Magda also took us to a very nice pub and then for a tour around the old city showing us scuptures, churches, and the castle. Everything was lit up beautifully!

On Saturday we were given sandwiches and tea for breakfast at a small cantine. They also gave us a bag lunch to bring with which included another sandwich, a pastry, candy bar, and water. The whole group left for the Salt Mine at about 11am on a couple of rented city busses. We had a about a 2 hour tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine that was very interesting and beautiful. It was very nice to be out of the heat and in the cool of the cave for a few hours. In the caves there were many carved statues, chapels, huge caverns, and even small lakes!To get down in the cave we took 54 flights of stairs and to get out a 3 level elevator.

After the cave we returned to the dorm area and were given a hot lunch in another cantine at about 4pm. We had some free time to hang out in the dorms before getting ready for the evening mascarade party. The theme for the party was movie stars but not many people dressed up. The party was a lot of fun and they had more food! We were given tickets for sausage, kabobs, and a beer.

On Sunday we had the same thing for breakfast and lunch as on Saturday. The group left at about 11am to go to the Wavel Castle. They had a group ticket for us to take the tram there. It had been raining and cold that morning and it was still raining when we got to the castle so we had to wait about half an hour before our tour. I walked around the courtyard and took pictures of the beautiful flowers and went in the music and gift shops. The tour was mostly inside the castle and of the weaponry and state rooms so we didn´t have to worry about the rain much.

After the castle tour we waited around a bit until it was time for the boat cruise on the river. It started raining again as we were starting the cruise so it wasn´t as nice as it could have been but we were able to take some pictures of bridges, buildings, and the castle. The boat cruise was the last thing on the IAESTE schedule so the various groups went their own ways. We walked in to town to take some pictures of the sites that Magda had shown us on Friday night. We went into a couple of beautifully painted churches and did a little shopping in the tourist market in the center building in the main square. I bought a mug that says Krakow. We had dinner at the same place as the first night and then went back to the dorms to pack and check out.

Magda helped us find the train station where we would catch our train home. This was a different station from the one that we had come in on. It was located inside a large shopping center. I don´t think that I would ever have found it without her. Our train left about 10:45pm. This train was more full than the one going to Krakow and so sleeping in the compartments was not as comfortable. We arrived back in Košice at about 5am.