Day 11: Krakow, Poland. We took an overnight bus from Vilnius to Krakow, stopping to switch buses in Warsaw. The total trip length was 12.5 hrs so I was quite happy to get out and walk around again when we arrived! Until I realized that in the last day or so I must have turned my ankle somewhere on the broken sidewalks and uneven cobblestones of Vilnius. Walking was uncomfortable yet doable, so I made the best of it. My suitcase, however, did not. The wheels decided to seize up completely, so our half-hour walk to the hotel was something of a workout. By the time we reached our hotel I was ready to throw the suitcase out the window and let the trams take care of it…except that I kinda needed it. And then we discovered that we could have made the trip from the train station to the hotel by streetcar in 5 minutes. Live and learn, I guess. We checked into our hotel in the old Jewish part of the city, and then went out to explore. All of us were pretty tired after travelling all night, so we took it easy and checked out a shopping center. In the evening we attended a choir competition concert held in St. Mary’s cathedral. This was about 3 hrs of some of the best choir music I’ve ever heard! Afterwards we were hungry so we grabbed food at the nearby Christmas market. When you’re hungry, a giant slab of bread slathered with lard, sausage, and fried onions tastes amazing. Great introductory day to Krakow…looking forward to more tomorrow!
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| Bazilika Mariacka (St. Mary’s Basilica) |
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| The interior of Bazilika Mariacka (St. Mary’s Basilica) |
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| Krakow’s Christmas market |
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| Krakow’s Christmas market: stacks of delicious mountain cheese from the southern region near Zakopane |
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| Fried onions and sausage |
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| When you’re hungry, nothing can beat a giant slab of bread slathered with lard, sausage, and fried onions! |
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| Rynek Glowny square with the Christmas market. The impressive building is the old “cloth hall”. |
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| Krakow’s Christmas market |
