Rynek Main Market, more than a meeting place

In the magnificent square of Rynek Glowny, one of the largest in Europe with it's 200 hundred metres squared, there a lot of things to do and a high percent of the most importants buildings of the city.

One of them is The basilica of Santa Maria with his Christ suspended, stained glass and amazing altar. In other churches like Legendary Wierzynek, also in the square, Chopin concerts usually held at seven o'clock.

At noght the area has a ghostly aspect that is even more disturbing with the dark perspective in Kanonicza street, where, among other fine buildings, stands the Hotel Copernicus.

In Krakow you have to look out because always the interior courtyards surpirse the visitor. The best example is the restaurant The Bell, also at Kanonicza, a good example of the modern and great polish food.

Rynek Glowny is a show at any time of day: dancers, guitarists virtuous, a man's voice singing castrati opera accompanied by the second voice of a child who is still in stroller.

For dinner, in Wesele (Rynek Glowny) is the strogonow delicious served in a bread. We recommend you Morskie Oko (Plac Szczepanski) too, a place for order amazings and traditional dishes like marinated pork shank, wild boar sauce with wild mushrooms, smoked sheep cheese, pancakes potato or beans are delicious pierogi.

Polish beer is excellent, but after these all this food the best dessert is a cold vodka, in its many variants or dry. With the night advanced Rynek Glowny becomes the capital of jazz and some places like Harrys Piano are an example of a vibrant city full of culture.

Franek Fernandez

Nowa Huta Files

Last weekend I took the tram from the old town of Krakow and rode out to see the place that in 1949 promised poor people "a better and communist future". Nowa Huta is a town that was constructed around a major industrial plant (the Lenin Steelworks) as central to the socialist project in Poland.

The district is a homage to socailist realist town planning and architecture but not many people know that in the beggining was a place designed for fun and entertainment. After stop in The Central Square of Nowa Huta and walk a few metters I found the Stylowa Restaurant. This local is a legend because was the suburb’s most elegant eatery, and it probably still is. Stylowa was the place where factory workers drank and danced with the girls after a hard day's work, the same people that after a few years don't trust enough the system.

 

Walking around the neighborhood I found a historical relic that made my skin crawl. This treasure was the Soviet IS-2 tank, one of the most well-known symbols of this Krakow district. The tank, which bears the initials of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, served the Polish army during World War II.

Another thing that surprised me was the absence of grafittis of the two football teams of the city: Wisla and Cracovia, that you can find anywhere in the city. This is because in Nowa Huta everybody support Sc Hutnik, the local and lowly team that nowadays is immersed in a period of crisis and economic uncertainly.

A place for culture

Established in 1955, Kino Ludowy is one of the youngest of Krakow's theatres. It was built within a model socialist-realism workers' housing estate. The theatre was supposed to educate the workers living there and give them access to culture.

It's very significant that Nowa Huta comes second only to Warsaw, with over 300 films made: mostly short reports and documentaries. There were also some feature films produced, e.g.: ”Człowiek z marmuru” (Man of Marble) by Andrzej Wajda, ”Pamięć” (Memory) by Kazimierz Karabasz and the little-known “Zagubione uczucia” (Lost Feelings) by Jerzy Zarzycki.

Franek Fernandez

A perfect Euro for the fans

The three teams that have krakow as home base during the tourney (Italy, England and Holland) has enjoyed during these days of a city open to the world. Indeed Krakow is an unofficial host city with its own unofficial fan zone:  Błonia Park, the point of fan activity and attention during the tourney.

With the enormous Błonia Meadow the city has the perfect place for it. In addition to its accommodating spaciousness and a history of hosting large scale events from music festivals to papal masses, the Błonia also is conveniently located directly between the city’s two main football stadiums – Wisła stadium on the Błonia’s north side (which will serve as practice facilities for the Dutch national squad) and Cracovia stadium on the south side (which will host the Italian side). Kraków’s fan zone will be free to enter and open every day from June 8th to July 1st.

But the emotion was not only in Błonia and it was possible to find the football players relaxed in their spare day. They took the opportunity to go for a walk around krakow with their families and friends and because of this the private security and the police has appeared like one more guest of the party.

It's a pity that Holland has abandoned the tournament so early because the colour of the Dutch fans -decked in classic bright orange - bring to the tournament is always a pleasure to see.

These days the city is full of people of all nationalities and we have to make a special mention to the Irish. “Ireland fans are the best in the world and many people will be crying when they leave", said some days ago tourism chief of Poznan, Jan Mazurczak, paying tribute to the Green Army, who sang  in each match the full repertoire of songs, incluiding 'Stand up, Sit down, Shoes off for the Boys in Green’ or 'The Fields of Athenry", an antherm of freedom and love for a country that is not in it's best moment.

"Low lie the Fields of Athenry

Where once we watched the small free birds fly.

Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing

It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry.".

Franek Fernandez

Summer music festivals in Poland

Festivals have become synonymous with summer, attracting thousands of people looking for the perfect line up. Burn Selector Festival (Krakow), the OFF Festival (Katowice) and Orange Warsaw Music Festival are three very different options but, in your opinion, which is the best? Here is some help for music lovers!

The 4th edition of Burn Selector Festival starts today. It's an awesome music festival that is held within the Blonia Park, one of the most popular Krakow's public parks. Selector Festival line-up includes big names of electronic and experimental music such as Mike Snow, Sub Focus and Buraka Som Sistema, an electronic dance music project from Portugal that mix techno with Kuduro music.

Along with the 4th edition of Burn Selector Festival, a multimedia park opens at Krakow’s Błonia. It includes two installations: “Taming a Doe” and “Become Whom? Him!”. The first one requires the viewers’ patience and calmness, and most of all, making no sound, which will make them meet the virtual doe. Even a slight move with a bad timing can scare it though.

Line-up: 18 artists on two stages, near 20 hours of concerts and Dj sets.

+ Info: www.selectorfestival.pl

Off Music Festival (Katowice)

This music festival has been held annually since 2006. Recently the prestigious website Pitchfork has named the Off Festival one of the 20 essential summer festivals, but where is the secret? The success belongs, in part, to Artur Rojek, the creator and artisitic director of the festival, that has won the title of this year "Best cultural manager".

The 7th edition will be held this year on August 2-5, and will feature such acts as Iggy and The Stooges, Alva Noto, Akron/Family, Jacaszek, Mathew Herbert, Death in Vegas and many more.

+ Info: www.off-festival.pl

Orange Warsaw Festival

The Prodigy will return to Poland to headline the Orange Festival. In less than two weeks you could see in one stage the best of all kind of music genres: rock, indie, hip hop and electronic.

Line-up: Linkin Park, Garbage, De la soul, Lauryn Hill and Groove Armada between others.

+ Info: www.orangewarsawfestival.pl

The end is near...

Hey guys!

  Here is Benedikt again and I think this is the last time that I'm writing to you on this blog, because I goinig leave Krakow on Saturday morning.

  I had a great time here in Krakow. Most of the time the weatiher was very good, so I was able to visit lots of things and places, but I still haven't seen everything.

  I'm sure that I will come back to Krakow for a holiday, because I like the city very much and I want to see much more of this beautiful city.

  I advise you to come to Krakow one time, too and explore this very big and interesting city on your own!

Benedikt's long weekend

Hi everyone!

It's me again!

   Last week I had a very long weekend, because of public holidays and some days without any work. So I had much time to do everything I wanted.

  The first thing I wanted to do was to sleep very long and I've done this almost very day of this week. But most of the time I just relaxed outside, because on this week the weather was still very good. For example on Tuesday it was too hot to do anything.

   In the evenings it was still warm, so my friends and me go out for dinners in some nice restaurants, but we also had some great dinners at home made by ourselves. Of course we also were in some very cool bars to drink some beers or other drink and we also visited many of the clubs in the old town.

   One morning we even get up every early to have a very good breakfast in a restaurant called “Vega”. I took a menu which was called “Farmer's boy”. I got some fried eggs, tomatoes, some bread and bacon. And of course it was very tasty!

   On weekend we were not only drinking and eating, we also did some culturally stuff.

On one day we visited Auschwitz and we already checked out the old Jewish quarter Kazimierz with all his little cafés and restaurants.

   So this is my last week here in Krakow but I think will write you again about my stay here.

Time to write some postcards!

Hey guys!

It's Benedikt again!

     At the moment we have great weather here in Krakow! So I'm outside as often as I can just to enjoy the sun! I hope you have the same good weather. 

     On Sunday I'm here for two weeks. So I think it's the right time for writing some postcards to my friends and family in Germany and tell them about my great time here in Krakow!

     Of course I miss my friends in Germany, but at the moment I don’t want to leave Krakow!

I have much fun here and there still so many things I have to see in Krakow and I think the weather is much better here than in Germany! ;)

     Tomorrow I will visit the Auschwitz Camp. So maybe I can tell you about this trip next time.

Tourism in the city

Krakow is plenty of different places that you never going to be bored to visit them!

Last weekend I decided to visit many famous places taking the opportunity weather is better.

First place, I began my tour in the main square called "Rynek". It was amazing to see people walking, children playing and I can´t not forget pigeons! This is pigeons city! The building I like most is St. Mary Church because from the top of the higher tower you can hear a trumpet player who plays every hour. In polish is called Hejnał and there are lots of tourists who want to visit him to heard the melody from his trumpet.

Second place, we went to take a break and we went to drink a delicious beer near Florian´s gate. And we saw a funny man dressed up beer and I could not resist to take a photo of him! 

After break, we continued our trip and we went to Wawel to visit the Cathedral and the Castle. This place is gorgeus because from there you can see all the city. If you go to Wawel, you can not going without touching the bell! 

Finally, we down the hill and went to the centre to continue visiting this city. You can notice spring is every place, so we went to sit down in the grass of a big famous park around the old city, Krakow´s Planty. In this city you always will have things to do!

Hi guys!

    I'm Benedikt and I'm from Haltern, Germany. It's in the west of Germany. Normally I go to a vocational college for Business and Administration in Germany. Like Laura I'm in Krakow for 4 weeks.

    My school offered me a work placement abroad. I was able to decide between England, Poland and Spain. So I chose Krakow, Poland because I never visited Poland before and I think to chose Poland was the right decision!

    I arrived here on Sunday the 15^th of April. So there is just one week past but I tried to see as many places of Krakow as I could. That is not very difficult, because in Krakow are so many things you have to see if you're staying here!

    I like Krakow very much because I like old buildings and Krakow is full of old buildings, squares and small streets. At the moment my favourite place is the Main Market Square in the middle of the old town. It's a very big market square with shops, restaurants, cafés and bars around it and at any time there are lots of people. But this is not the only place I like. Close to the Main Market Square is a smaller square with are very nice shisha café called “Shisha Club”. It's in the basement of an old building and looks very cool! I also like to spend my evenings in the “Café Art”. It's small Bar/Café at the Main Market Square.

    I already visited the Wawel Castle and the “Dragon's cave” under it. Wawel Castle is a castle on a hill next to the old town and it's very pretty! I also checked out Krakow's nightlife and went to some clubs and bars at night. Like the rest of the city they are really cool!

    So there are 3 weeks left and I will enjoy to live in Krakow and try to see much more of this city!

Great places to visit in Krakow

   This city has many places to visit specially if you want to get a great picture of all the city. I´m talking about Kosciuszko's Mound, erected by Cracovians in commemoration of the Polish national leader Tadeusz Kościuszko.

   The last weekend I decided to explore Krakow with my friends and we went walking from the centre of the city until arrive to Kosciuszko´s Mound. It was a great and tired walk but it was worth.

   I was there until night and I could see all the city: different buildings, Wawel Castle, the kazimierz district…I could also see where I´m living here.

     In Krakow you´ll never be tired to visit more places because each place is different. When I arrived here all was covert by snow and now I can see flowers bloom by spring. I have to come back to my country in May, when here, in Krakow, weather is getting better. What a pity!

And Now for Something Completely Different

Hi everyone!

 

    To whoever doesn't know me - I'm Niki! and I'm doing the "Erasmus Project" in Krakow. Erasmus is a crazy European student exchange program that allows you to meet people and places you would have never met otherwise. For a start- Krakow is absolutely perfect if you want to unload some long years of heavy studying or some long weeks/months of whatever else you need to unload!

   Try to get to the "Carpe Diem II" - on Mondays you'll find the cheapest beer you can find in Krakow, only 3.5 zl (~€0.80) perfect for the students among us! This place offers also some good rock music and a lively atmosphere!

   As for the other days of the week me and my friends often hang out in Pauza cafe' , Propaganda, Omerta Pub and by far any other place in the vicinity of Plac Nowy like Singer's, Alchemia , ecc. These places are all unique for a great atmosphere!

   As an experience I absolutely love this city and I guess it's something you'll find out while being here! and don't forget to say hello if you bump into me!

And for dessert: A bum getting some sun on the river bank:

After Easter

   For me, Easter Week has been completely different from my country because we have other customs. First of all, we usually go out to street and we see a lot of "pasos" (Passion floats in english) which represent passion and death of Christ. So, of this way people go to the street to see a lot of Passion floats in a day.

   In Poland, specifically in Krakow, I had a great Easter. Here, and in the rest of european countries is typical painting Easter Eggs and decorated them. I have no many habilities to paint, so I decided to bought it in Easter Festival which is placed in the Main Square every year. In all the city there was a atmosphere genuine of Easter:     decorated shops, Eggs Easter in everywhere, churches which invite people to celebrate Easter...

   If you are living in other country you must introduce in it culture to understand better it way of life. It´s the only way to have a great time and meeting different people!

A weekend full of History

   Last Friday I went to the old factory of Oskar Schindler. Today it is a museum of modern tras. At the moment they are showing you “Cracow during the Nazi-Occupation”. I am really interested in those things, so I decided to take a look. There are so many impressive things you can look for, I didn’t see anything like this before. There are many original stuff of the WW II. In it, I had a mix of sadness and impres sing. Not impressed by the Nazi-Occupation, impressed by Oskar Schindler. A man of honour. What he did for the Jewish people is for me today unbelievable. I saw many times before in the TV or Internet documentations about him and what he had done, but in this you can see original things of his time and you get much more impressions of what he had done. All the old documents of the Nazi-Occupation were written in German, so I can read all of them. That was near the most shocking moments.

   

   On Saturday, I had a trip to Auschwitz/Birkenau. Before I started my trip, I was really nervous and scared about my reactions to the camp. First, we drove to Auschwitz I. There was a guide waiting for us, we all got headsets and he had a micro, he spoke English very well, so that everybody understood him. We went there in old Barracks, where the Jewish people lived. We have seen how they lived. In Auschwitz I there is also a gas chamber where we went inn. I felt very sick in it. After that we drove to Auschwitz II / Birkenau. That camp is completely different than Auschwitz I. It is much bigger, there are much more Barracks. The German tried to destroy the gas chambers at the end of the war and in Birkenau they were successfull. You only see the ruin of one of them. But that is in my opinion terrible enough. 

   At the beginning of the camp, you can see the railway where the prisoners arrived. For me it was a horrible day. During the trip I said only a few words. But I think that it is not enough to watch some documentations about it, you have to see the original. It was the most interesting trip during my stay in Poland and after that I have much more knowledge about the most terrible part of history.

Contrasts between Spain and Poland

After a month living in Krakow I can write down some contrasts between my country of residence and Poland, where I´m living at the moment.

I begin with the weather. When you think spring is coming, is not for always. For example, last weekend in Krakow were 20º degrees and now I wear my scarf again. Sometimes, these changes of weather make you to have different moods. I recognize that in Spain, specifically Seville, where I live, temperatures are extremely higher (45º degrees in summer). It´s so much but sometimes I miss Mediterranean weather.

I´m surprised walking in the street and see people all the time eating bagels (obwarzanek in polish). Furthermore, they don´t usually have lunch, they prefer to eat bagels, if they do.

Anyway, I have tasted the famous bagels and I can say that they are delicious. I have eaten different types of food here: pierogi, bagels (obwarzanek), soups (Poland has lot of kind of tasty soups).

Of course, Polish people have different work timetables. We can do the same times of work, in particular 8 hours, but polish people don´t usually spend time having lunch or breakfast so they finish their work at 17 or 18 pm. In Spain, we usually having breakfast and lunch, for this reason we finish our work at 8 pm. I can understand Polish people finish earlier than in Spain, because at 17.30 is sunset.

Poland and Spain are different, but Polish people usually are so friendly to Spanish and this city offers many Spanish things: coffees, masses, restaurants, Cervantes Institute…

So if the Spanish readers decide to come here it will be a great choice.

                                                                                                                                             Marta

Laura's surprise

My name is Laura Sontag. I am 20 years old and I am from the west of Germany. I came to Cracow to do an internship for 4 weeks.

The Main Market Square

As I decided to do that internship in Poland, I was thinking about the country, the city and the people. I had never been to Poland before, so I was really excited about my trip. I've been to many cities all over the world, I've seen beautiful places, interesting countries and many different cultures, but I have to say that I am really impressed by Cracow and the Polish people.

The Krakow's Main Market Square is like the heart of the city. I've never seen before such a big market place - all around are cafés, restaurants and shops. There are always so many different people. In one of the first days I sat in a café and watched them.

The city is very alive. Honestly, I did not expect that before. The Polish people are very friendly and polite. They all try to help when you ask for example for the direction. I walked through the city center and the old town, everywhere are small streets, many lovely places and many nice cafés and restaurants. It was a great decision to come to Krakow. I hope to see much more of that beautiful city and I’m sure that I will have a great time here. I will write again about my stay in Krakow and I will describe as good as I can my next impressions and steps for You.

Laura

Marta's first impressions

My name is Marta, I come from Spain and I´m a journalist. When I arrived to Poland the first thing I noted was the weather, really cold. Actually, in Seville – where I come from - never snows, so for me Krakow´s weather in the first March days is really bad and sometimes I would like to change that.  

Paintings close to St. Florian Gate

            I will live here for three months. In Spain, as many other countries at the moment, a lot of people haven´t got any job because of the crisis, so for this reason I decided to begin a work exchange program to improve my labour situation. Spanish journalists have a lot of problems – they are losing their jobs, the situation doesn´t change and nobody can pay for them. In my case, it´s exactly the same. But I would like to live in this beautiful city for a long or short time and work here.

            Krakow... There are lots of things which for me are news, like the history, for example. I think I will more understand Polish people and their culture, when I began to go to museums or visit famous places at Kazimierz (old ghetto). Krakow is a city full of history of World War II. It´s not the same - study many historical books when you are in high school and be in a city and know by yourself. I think that to know completely some place and it's history you must move to them, visit museums, walk for their streets, talk with different people and ask them about their impressions. 


I have been living here for a month and I have met a lot Polish people, who have different ways to see life and we can change impressions, emotions. Actually, I think Polish people are open-mind to foreign people. I don´t speak Polish language, but I can say that polish people have tried to help me when I had to go to the supermarket or the pharmacy. They tried to understand me.

            Finally, one of the things which I like the most in Poland is it's... food. They have a lot of imagination and creativity to cook many plates with a potato or make different tastes of soups and pasta.

Marta