Krakow: the City of Kings and Dragons

14 – 17 April 2018

When I arrived in Krakow I was a bit concerned about my host. Quite a while back he had approached me on Couchsurfing and offered me a place to stay, which I had accepted. But over the past few days it had become increasingly harder to contact him and he would often respond very late. My gut feeling told me not to trust it, so in the meantime I kept an eye out for other possible hosts in Krakow, but so far without success. Shortly after I had arrived in Krakow my initial host actually contacted me and gave me his phone number. He told me he was at the Galeria Krakowska, a large shopping center next to the main train station, but that was the last I ever heard of him. I have no idea why, but I have never heard anything from him again (at least my gut feeling had proven to be right). So there I was, standing with by two bags in the middle of the Galeria. Luckily, I had also found someone else on Couchsurfing and he invited me to stay with him. And so, after at least one hour of waiting, I still had address to go to.

That night I met my new host, Francesco, a well traveled guy from Rome, Italy. He was very friendly and that night he invited me to join him and two of his friends for some drinks in the popular Jewish Quarter of the city. This is where I also got a zapiekanka, a popular street food in Poland. It is an open-faced long sandwich, topped with, in my case, mushroom, bacon and cheese. It was really delicious and definitely filling. After that, the four of us went to have something to drink on a rooftop terrace. At the end of the night Francesco showed me another nice pub, which was decorated with wallpaper from the 20th century and on all the tables were sewing machines. A very cosy place, with a typical choice of music. It almost feels like visiting your grandmother, only with some 40 other people joining you in the living room. After we had our beer, we went home.

The following day I was chatting with another guy on Couchsurfing, who turned out to be a Spanish guide in the city. He told me that they also have free city tours in English and that I could join them that morning at 10:30. So I joined the English tour and it was quite interesting. The guide, a Polish girl in her early twenties, was very enthusiastic and knew a lot about the city. I will tell you a bit of what she told us.

Krakow is an ancient city, that is actually older that Poland itself. The city was a prosperous trading hub during the Middle Ages. It also has the largest market square in Poland. Because pieces of certain cloth were very valuable and often got stolen by thieves in the main market square, they erected a large building in the center of the square where traders could safely sell their cloth. In the Cloth Hall you can now find lots of souvenir shops.

The most prominent building on the square is the St. Mary’s Cathedral. The church has two large towers, although they do not have the same height. Legend tells that the towers were built by two brothers. Since both brothers were always very competitive, they made a bet: the brother who would build the tallest tower would be the better brother. The older brother had the tallest tower, but he was older and his younger brother would have more time during his life to construct his tower. So one day, out of jealousy, he pushed the younger brother off his tower and he died below in the main market square. Mad with grief and guilt the older brother later stabbed himself in the heart and he also fell down from his tower onto the main market square. Of course this tragic story never happened, but, as a reminder that greed is a bad thing and that brothers should love each other, there is an old knife hanging at the Cloth Hall to remind everyone of the story.

The real reason why one of the towers is shorter than the other is because the tallest tower serves as a watchtower to look for fires or enemies. If both towers would have the same height, then they would be blocking each other’s view and an enemy could take advantage of this. In one of the towers is a man who plays a trumpet every hour, from each of the four windows of the tower. The first time the man plays the trumpet in the direction of the Wawel Castle, to greet the king (back when the city still had a king). The second time he is greeting the members of the town hall. The third time he plays towards the main gate, to greet the travelers coming into the city. And lastly he greets the citizens of Krakow.

A look into the city’s history shows its importance throughout the centuries. Wawel Royal Castle had always been the residence of the kings of Poland. The castle is located on a hill next to the old town, overlooking the entire area. Within the walls of the castle there is a beautiful cathedral, both from the in- and outside. On the outside (which you can see on the featured photo of this article) you can easily recognize a mix of different building periods and architectural styles, like Baroque and Renaissance. The entrance to the cathedral is even decorated with the bones of a dragon! Well, so they used to think when they dug up the bones centuries ago. Nowadays we know those bones are actually a whale’s jaw, a mammoth bone and the bone of an extinct hairy rhino. People back then used to belief was that even the devil was afraid of a dragon, which is why the bones of a dragon guard to entrance to the church.

But there is more to the dragon of Krakow. There is a legend of a dragon who made his home in the cave underneath the castle. He demanded a lot of food from the king: first the sheep, then the cows, and, when the city had ran out of sheep and cows, he demanded virgins. But the king had a daughter and he knew that at some point he would need to sacrifice her too. So he promised brave knights a reward for killing the dragon, but no knights survived the encounter with the dragon underneath Wawel Castle. But then there came a shoemaker, who came up with an idea to get rid of the dragon. He killed a sheep (apparently there was still one left) and stuffed the sheep with sulfur, because that would cause a reaction with the fire in the dragon’s stomach (edit thanks to floatinggold). Then he sewed the sheep back together to make it seem like nothing happened. The dragon ate the sheep and started burning from the inside. He ran to the river and started drinking so much, that he eventually exploded. The previously poor shoemaker married the king’s daughter and got half the kingdom and they lived happily ever after. The cave underneath Wawel Castle can still be seen with the statue of the dragon in front of it. The dragon breathes fire every five minutes.

Krakow has lots of legends and stories as you may have guessed already. After the tour I met with the Spanish guide Julian and we walked around the city and had some lunch. We also strolled along the Vistula River, which runs all the way from the mountains south of Poland through Krakow, Warsaw and eventual reaches the Baltic Sea near Gdańsk. That night I joined another free tour about the secrets and legends of Krakow, which was very interesting. After the tour I went back home.

The next day I got some very disappointing news: the tour I had booked to Auschwitz for that day, got canceled. Well, not really cancelled, but it turned out that I had to be on the morning tour starting at 07:30, instead of the afternoon tour. There has been some miscommunication, since I did book the afternoon tour. Unfortunately, nothing could be done about it and I had to find something else to do. So I decided that I would go to Schindler’s Factory instead. You may know this factory from Steven Spielberg’s movie Schindler’s List (which I have to admit, I never watched). This was a very interesting museum and they really did an amazing job in creating the right ambience, using fitting decors throughout the exhibition. Maybe it’s even better than going to Auschwitz, since masses of tourists flock to this ‘attraction’. I don’t think people should visit Auschwitz as they would any other touristic site. It’s the thought and realization of the terrible things that happened, that matter there. And Schindler’s Factory did a great job in showing this information. So I don’t think that I really missed out on something.

Earlier that morning I was also contacting people to ask if they could host me in Wroclaw, since that host was not responding to me anymore as well (anyone see a pattern?). Only this time, I was making sure I have a host before I would arrive in Wroclaw. So I approached a Spanish guy on Couchsurfing and asked if I could stay with him. He said that he was currently not in Wroclaw but that he would be back on Wednesday (but I would arrive on Tuesday). So I told him that I would continue to look for a place, and that I would otherwise stay at his place from Wednesday till Thursday. Later in the day, after visiting the Schindler Factory, I met with Julian (the Spanish guide) who was sitting with two of his friends: Juan and Sergi. It was quite strange, but Sergi looked somewhat familiar. When I told them of my plans of going to Wroclaw Sergi said that he was actually from Wroclaw and that he would go back there on Wednesday. That moment I realized that the guy sitting in front of me was actually the one I talked with on Couchsurfing in the morning! So, after we talked for a bit and got to know each other a bit better, Sergi made me a very generous offer: he would give me the keys to his place in Wroclaw, and I could stay there and give him back his keys when he would return. I almost couldn’t believe it! It also made me realize (more than before) that Couchsurfing is a very strong community, where there’s a whole network of people. One friend can connect you to three others, who can also connect you to others etc.

That night I went to a karaoke night organized by Erasmus, with Julian, Juan and Sergi. I had also invited my host, Francesco to come. So I had some beers and a shot of vodka and then went back home together with Francesco. The following day I had to wake up early to catch the bus to Wroclaw, my final city to visit in Poland!