When I was visiting my friends, Justin and Mai, in Houston a couple of months ago, I got invited to tag along and be a tourist during Mai’s work conference in Krakow, Poland. Even though I didn’t know a lot about the city, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Filled with old medieval architecture that was preserved through WWII and the rich history and culture that prevails in this place, I got pretty excited about the trip. A priority to me was deciding which cameras to take.
Since I was recently given some older camera stuff, I figured out a way to adapt older 70’s/80’s Canon FD lenses to my wife, Emily’s, Nikon Z50 mirrorless digital. These older lenses have a softer look than the more clinically crisp modern lenses and are popular in cinema film. I also brought along my trusty Nikon SP 35mm film camera with Portra 400 for my day at Auschwitz. The iPhone camera got used a bit too as a matter of convenience. I’ve been focused on film, but what’s nice about digital on these longer trips is getting back to the room and editing each day so it’s not so overwhelming back home after film processing.
Friday: After a not so pleasant smelling Lyft ride to the Denver airport and a forced conversation on behalf of the driver, I was ready to get out of dodge. I’m a planner, so made sure I had all the latest tools for my redeye flight to Munich, including eye mask, ear plugs, inflatable neck pillow, and even a footrest that hangs from the tray table. Departure was 4pm MST and arrival 9 hrs later. The flight was uncomfortable despite my best intentions. Justin arrived a little later from Houston and we both thought we needed to do a little stretching so we started a German american yoga class that no one else attended in the midst of urgent passerby’s. Lufthansa offers free barista style machine coffee at their gates and what could chase that down better than (what’s the time in the US?) a German pilsner? I had a Big sleep on the two hour flight to Krakow… A bit disoriented landing, we grabbed our respective luggage and met up with Mai and her two coworkers, who had been traveling for business. They all left for their conference hotel and after navigating train and foot, found my Airbnb located just west of Old Town… It was an old building with lots of steps to the fourth floor, but the location was amazing and the artistic details of this place made me very happy. The owner is a portrait photographer living in NYC (photo cred, the owner, Dominik).
After settling in and rallying, I set out to meet with my friends in Old Town. My phone was slowly dying, and I realized the one thing I forgot was an European outlet adapter. It was a stressful struggle to match locations trying to meet at “the statue.” How did we all survive before cell phones?! My first mission was to get the adapter thing figured out, then we’d find a place to eat dinner. After a sleep deprived scavenger hunt at three different convenience stores, I grabbed the solo one off the rack at Rossmann drugstore before anyone else could snag it. My modern day phenomenon panic mode settled down and I could focus on my belly’s needs. We walked around in the rain and settled on a somewhat touristy place called Pierogarnia Krakowiacy. Here, we devoured large meals of bread bowl stew and pierogies. I went back to my accommodations to be an introvert while Mai and Justin explored a little more and somehow still had room to eat some eligibly sick street vender kielbasa.
Saturday: In the morning, we met up in Old Town again and climbed the Town Hall Tower, took a stroll through Cloth Hall, where I bought my dog Panda a stuffed dragon named Smok. We then peaked into St. Mary’s Basilica. Church was going on, so we couldn’t walk in but I did get a picture of the beautiful ceiling. We made our way to the MNK Muzeum Czartoryskich, which has a great collection of art, including Leonardo da Vinci’s, the Lady with an Ermine and two works by Rembrandt (pictures don’t do these justice!). We ate at a milk bar (cheap, cafeteria style Polish cuisine) and had some better food than the night before. After walking around some more, I got myself some snacks and Polish beer at the local convenience store, Zabka (meaning frog!) and chilled out for the evening to sort through photos from today.
Sunday: Mai had to work today, so Justin and I started the day with some strong Turkish coffee and a walk down to Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter, for some thrifting. I found a sweet Simpson’s sweater that I couldn’t live without, so I shelled out a few zloty and it was going back to it’s home in America. We checked out the Banksy museum. Since no one knows who Banksy is, this was one of the few world’s tributes to his street art.
Next, we hit lunch at a great hole in the wall Japanese restaurant, Tokio tower. We walked across the Vistula river to the Forum, a repurposed Brutalist architecture hotel with a bunch of shops and restaurants. A path along the river took us to a pedestrian bridge and back to Kazimierz where we popped into the Corpus Christi Basilica and a store that sells records, skateboards, and spray paint for street art.
We ate at the hub of Kazimierz called Plac Nowy, a place known for baguette style pizzas called “zapiekanki.” There was also a farmer’s market selling lot’s of old antiques that we browsed through. Last, we hit up a final museum of the day, the Pinball museum, and played old pinball machines and other video games for a while.
Monday: I joined some tours with Mai’s work group today (minus Mai). Making my way to their hotel via a 30 minute light rail trip, I joined their bus, which took us back to Kazimierz. Our tour guide was super knowledgeable and took us on a walking tour of the area where the Jews were forced to reside during the 1950’s created by Germany during WWII. A lot of injustices were pointed out. During this tour, we learned a story about makeup inventor, Helena Rubinstein. We learned about the Mezuzot, a thing on Jewish people’s homes intended for prayer and how they were removed, murders in front of synagogues, and so much other unspeakable atrocities that happened during this time. In comparison to Warsaw, Krakow had less casualties, but the same horror… We made our way across the river, again in the bus, and arrived shortly at the Ghetto Hero’s Square. This brick courtyard has 33 permanently mounted oversized chairs, each symbolizing 1000 people lost and for various reasons. This area used to be the round up location to take people to concentration camps. There is a pharmacy still there on the corner with an interesting history. The man who owned the pharmacy wasn’t Jewish but wanted to stay there because of the much needed medical care.
I should mention that the Jewish quarter, I was just at, north of the river, was the original place that Jewish people were located. That’s because the river used to divide that area and make it an island. As soon as the Holocaust went into full effect, all Jewish people were required to relocate south of the river into the Jewish Ghetto. From there, we walked a few blocks east and arrived at Schindler’s factory. I watched Schindler’s list before my trip, so I knew a lot of the history. Schindler wasn’t a Jew but gave jobs to them, probably for cheap labor, but he is still regarded as a hero. We saw so many things in the museum but it was really nice not standing in line, thanks to our tour guide and tickets. Our guide told us stories along the way like how Celina Biniaz, one of the longest known survivors and youngest people saved by Oskar Schindler, routinely speaks about her experience here.
After we got though that, I was quite tired of walking (I estimated 60 miles for the week!) and mentally exhausted, so I insisted Justin get over his apprehension toward motorized scooters, and we made the rest of our journey on bumpy roads at full speed. The amusing look on his face while he disrupted a flock of pigeons let me know he was having fun. Next, I hit up Zabka.
Tuesday: I started the day a little later and read one of the books on the shelf at my place called “Man’s search for meaning.” I read it before in high school but in preparation for Auschwitz tomorrow, I found it fitting to re-read. I highly recommend this book. The author, Viktor Frankl, is a holocaust survivor and offers lessons for spiritual survival. I joined Justin for more walking to the Japanese Museum for brunch at Cafe Manggha. We walked the same path down the river as yesterday to check out the Museum of Contemporary art. There was a food themed exhibit going on with everything imaginable and more.
We took the light rail to the conference hotel and Uber’d back with their luggage to their vacation hotel, now that the conference was over for Mai. It was rainy and we both needed haircuts, so we searched around until someone would take a couple of American walk-ins and we got some haircuts for about half the American price. Mai had one last work dinner, so Justin and I went to a place called Pod Wawelem Kompania Kuflowa. It was recommended and didn’t disappoint. The bathroom had signs that cracked me up!
Wednesday: Tour of Auschwitz. Heavy, heavy day! One hour bus ride with some other folks. We entered a nicer place than I expected and had a nonchalant entrance through security into a room with headphones and a receiver. We weren’t allowed to eat or drink, out of respect, during the tour. Entering the gates, in German, reads, “Work will set you free.” We went from bunker to bunker and got a sense of the (literally) dying conditions and saw pictures of some of the victims lined up along the walls. There were areas where we weren’t allowed to take photos, such as a disgusting room filled with human hair, which was sold as a textile material. Prosthetic limbs and orthopedic appliances amassed a room, representing people murdered by Hitler’s regime who weren’t up to par with the Nazi ideology. We saw a wall where people were brought out and shot. A deadening walk through Poland’s only remaining gas chamber and cremation area left me feeling a bit queasy. It turns out that killing people wasn’t the weakest link, burning the bodies was.
We took a brief break, ate a sack lunch and then went to Birkenau (Auschwitz II). Here, we saw the drop zone for the trains coming in where people (if they survived the long ride with nothing) landed, all their belongings thrown out, and a man pointed finger one way or another. One way was work camp, other was immediate death. About 90% went to death. These weak men, women, and children, followed what looked to be a Red Cross truck (transporting the poisonous gas, Zyklon B) giving them false hope that aid was on the way, only for their demise of a shower filled with toxic gas. The ride home was filled with silence. I needed a mental rest, so I just went back and chilled out after that.
Thursday: I walked some streets I hadn’t covered yet on my way to Justin and Mai’s hotel to join them for our day. We walked by Wawel castle along with many field tripper kids going to see Smok the dragon. This statue shot fire out of his mouth every 15 minutes. According to legend, the notorious beast wanted to eat humans, but was appeased by cattle until it’s death when it was cleverly fed a cow stuffed with sulfur, by one of the king’s son (which led to it’s death). A younger son was said to have murdered that son taking credit for the heroism but after being found out was banished and the sister inherited the kingdom… We then took an Uber to the Chapel of Perpetual Adoration. There was a nice view of the city from the top of a tower. The building itself was a stark contrast to all the older buildings we’d been seeing. Pope John Paul II is from Poland, so is a respected figure here and since 85% of Poland is Catholic, his name and face are everywhere.
We walked to a light rail station and then strolled through Park Bednarskiego and onwards to the top of Krakow mound. This was the best weather day so far, and we had a spectacular view from there. We walked back through the park, stopped into another basilica, then ate at a Korean restaurant called Bistro Pan Kimpap. Next, we light-railed to the muWi Stained glass museum. It required advanced tickets, so to kill time, we hung out by the National museum, watched some in-line skaters shredding it, and poked our heads into another revamped old building with some cool shops.
I liked the stained glass tour because it was more of a workshop than a museum. Having done some myself in my Dad’s old work station, I was intrigued. They showed us all their techniques for glass color staining, multiple and tedious layered painting with use of a kiln (using a subtractive method), cutting and seaming. Next we got to see some stained glass works, including the amazing recreation of Wyspiański’s famous Apollo window. We finished the night with drinks at a cool place called Mr. Black. We walked through Cloth Hall again and I got another Panda gift, a stuffed goose. I retired while Mai and Justin explored into the night.
Friday: Travel day. We all met at the airport and took the same flight to Vienna. We bumped fists, hugged, and parted ways. I flew into Chicago and then out is when things got interesting… There were storms a flowing, and my flight hit some turbulence. We had to take a bit of an emergency landing into Des Moines. After 25 hours flying, all I wanted to do was get home, see Emily and Panda, and go to bed. But this was a first world problem, after my Holocaust museum visit… After a series of getting on/off then on/off another plane, the pilot’s times were up and the passengers were told to get a hotel. Next morning, I made it back and was greeted by the fam at the airport. The car ride home was much more pleasant smelling than the ride out to the airport. It felt good to be home and Panda loved adding Smok and Goose to her collection of toys!
If you read this far, thanks for tuning in. Hope this inspires your own adventures! -Z
Here’s some of Justin’s pics