Krakow
I just can’t begin to describe my holiday in Krakow. I think I’ll let Jez’s flickr stream do it for me. Just click the photo. My photos will probably arrive in installments, once flickr decides it’s heard of me!
It stopped raining for about four hours the whole time we were in Krakow. However this didn’t stop us from having an amazing time. We were staying in a rather bohemian hotel in Kasimierz, the old Jewish quarter, which is out of the main part of the city. There were lots of synagogues, restaurants and cafés to go in and hide from the rain.
One of our favourite cafés in the world is now "Singer", where the tables are old Singer sewing machine tables, the mirrors and pictures on the wall are delapidated, and candles light up the dark décor. At night however, a young crowd come and dance to Gypsy Kings (which brought back memories of our first date) and the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. Jez said it would take a lot of alcohol for him to get up and dance. So a lot of alcohol later, we finally danced together in Krakow! Neither of us has any co-ordination or sense of rhythm, but it was still a great experience!
Another favourite hangout is Alchemia club, where the music is extremely varied and for the most part very good, the décor is just quirky, and the drinks are Samoobsluga - almost the same as my favourite Czech word for self-service!
And another lovely café / restaurant we went in for hot chocolate / hot mead / Jewish cuisine was called Once Upon A Time In Kasimierz. It was the interior of four former shops: a grocer, a woodworker, a dressmaker and another tradesman but I can’t remember what, sorry. The restaurant is in four small sections, so around one table there is a sewing machine, a tailor’s dummy, hat boxes and tails jackets, then another section has a carpenter’s workbench, etc etc. It is truly lovely.
And the quirkiest restaurant round there? Klezmer Hois! Where we ate a three course meal (enough for a food hangover) whilst listening to live Klezmer music. We also had lots of apperfitifs, liquers, beers, wines and the most disgusting "cake kiss" in the world. It was just Perfect!
And all of these places were just five minutes from our hotel!
We went out of the city twice. Once was to the salt mines about half and hour away - well worth a visit, despite the rain. The other trip was to Auschwitz. I don’t really want to describe how I felt when I went there. I will just say that it was harrowing and I’m glad I saw it. You can see the photos.
We could have spent a week just in Kasimierz, but we managed to get into town and see the castle and various churches and monuments, and also the Photography museum which you really shouldn’t bother going to!
Jez took Polish classes many many years ago, and manages to say "I’m sorry, my Polish is not very good" so well that people just assume he’s being modest and speak Polish back. I just kept speaking Czech accidentally - to waitresses, taxi drivers - and I asked Jez, "do you think they’re laughing at my Czech?"
"No," he said, "they just think you’re speaking shit Polish."
"Well," I said, "I managed to speak shit Czech for three months and get away with it!"
His response:
"Ah yes, Operation Shit Czech is alive and well!"
Jez, I love you. Thanks for a brilliant holiday xxx
