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Debra's
Diary ~ Date: September 2007.
Krakow old town is much smaller than
either Prague or Budapest, so it is easy to cover everything
you want to see. The railway station is a bit of a trek
trailing cases to hotels within walking distance, and in the
pouring rain, trying to find a taxi to take you to your hotel
that is not close is a nightmare. There does not appear
to be a taxi rank near to the railway station which seems to go
against usual trend. I liked Krakow very much, there is
a lot to see in a relatively small area, which makes filming a
much easier prospect. The weather was patchy, which is
hard for continuity but with viewing the footage we've shot in
the evening, it gives us an opportunity to re-take shots if
they are a bit gloomy or don't match. But that in turn
means doubling back on yourself, which extends the filming day
no end. Or using up a portion of another day that was
allotted to somewhere else - or whizzing around like a mad
thing on the morning of the day of your flight back home.
As
a general rule, we found that most people over 30 did not
speak English at all or not well, and most people under 30
spoke it extremely well. With so many students in Krakow
(over 150,000), they give the city a young feel and an energy
that is engaging, although I wouldn't call it a 'cheerful'
city. I don't think I've ever seen so many pubs, bars,
cafes, restaurants and cellar bars
in such a compact area, and the choice of cuisine is really
extensive, and amazingly cheap. I've also never seen so
many young, good-looking policemen in my life either.
It
is very straightforward and easy to get around in Krakow,
although the swarm of little tourist golf-cart trains is
annoying; the horse and carriages are much more
attractive. The Cloth Hall market stalls are a shopper's
dream for amber jewellery, Tiffany lamps, wooden carvings,
outer clothing and traditional crafts, and it is a very
attractive building set in an attractive wide square.
The church of St. Mary has two gothic towers, one of which you
can climb to the top to see the famed Trumpeter blow his
trumpet through each of the four corner windows, his call to
arms symbolically cut off in mid-note to commemorate the 13th
century trumpeter who was shot in the throat as he warned of
the Mongol invasion. This trumpet tribute is broadcast
on Krakow radio every day at noon. But it's a lot of steps and you
need a good head for heights, which is why Dave went up and I
didn't.
We
took an excursion to Nowa Huta with Crazy Guides in a Trabant
driven by Crazy Qba - crazily. I've never been in a
Trabant before, and I can honestly say I don't wish to
again. As explained on the drive, with Qba cheerfully
pointing out with both
hands, (which was worrying as they didn't spend a great deal
of time gripping the steering wheel), the whole thing is made of fibreglass and
the bonnet is made of cardboard; it has no fuel pump, the
petrol tank sits on top of the engine, and we had to have the
windows open as the exhaust smoked like a mini-steelworks the
entire journey. But the Trabis are constantly
maintained, and as Qba obviously not only knew how to drive
one but also how to fix one, we arrived unscathed at Nowa Huta.
The tour itself was hugely
entertaining, due in a large part to Crazy Qba's quirky and
charming non-stop commentary and very educational - this was
Communism as I had never expected to see it. We visited
a 'Communist' flat - it smelled of boiled cabbage and stale
vodka - where the company had collected together items
representative of the Communist years, and we took vodka shots
and in Dave's case a gherkin to kill the aftertaste of the
vodka. I had a piece of spicy sausage. Really
worth doing; Crazy Qba really knew his stuff and it gives you
an insight you don't expect - like food ration coupons from
the 80's.
Our
walk took us over the river on a nondescript bridge to find
the infamous ghetto and Oskar Schindler's factory - it wasn't that obvious on foot,
but the little golf-carts managed to find it and also managed
to park in shot
as well. The Church of the Rock was fascinating, and
when we were there, had a really excellent display on the life
of St. Stanislaw, the patron saint of the city. And of
course, Krakow was home to Pope John Paul II, and there is a
city trail devoted to him. There are several themed city
trails to follow, such as the Jewish one and the University
trail and we tried to combine elements of all of them in our
film. The Remu'h Cemetery is moving, and we ate in the
Jewish quarter more than once because the food was so good.
Wawel
Castle has an interesting history incorporating the ravages of
Imperialistic Austrians, but there is nowhere in Krakow that
has a vantage point from which to view it, so it becomes less
imposing than it could have been. Our walk took us along
the river, out of town to the Kosciuszko Mound, and you can
have a nicer, broader perspective of the castle from the
riverbank.
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