Day 2

Inside Castle Wawel

That's not brass and it's not painted. It's made of gold. It was painted over however during WW2 when it was know Krakow would fall to the Gemans to deceive them.

Appoaching castle Wawel which is built on a hill.

Wawel Castle

The ruins of Wawel Castle's maze.

Inside Wawl Castle

Half litre of beer. Do they even sell 355ml cans? No. Discontinued due to lack of interest.

Images created by students of a nearby arts university

Dig in

Hello to everyone! Ian and I are doing quite well, the sights are amazing with so much to visit! Our bodies are trying to adjust to the time change and we are waking up very early, 3 am in the morning. My grandmother makes sure that we were stuffed before we went off to start our adventures.

We took the 502 bus route to the Centre Sqaure aka Rynek Glowny (the 152 will also suffice, but takes longer). We got off at the main terminal and went into 'Galeria Krakow', an amazing shopping mall larger then Polo Park, containing Zara's, Versace, Mango, Vera Moda, and the most attractive women on Earth (so says Ian, whose eyes hurt from darting back and forth). We bought several bottles of water and energy drinks and set off towards the Centre Square through the Barbakan, the last remaining section of a fort that encircled the whole of the Old Town district. We headed down the Florianski Street, in search of 19. Sw. Jana Street where the Czartoryski Museum is located (Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting 'Lady and the Ermine' is located here) but found that it is closed on Mondays. It is something we are planning to see however.

We settled on taking a light lunch right on the Square at the resturant 'Pod Bialem Orlem' (Under the White Eagle). We each ordered familiar perogies (Monika ordered meat perogies and Ian ordered Polish), and were in agreement that they were the best we ever had, perhaps second only to our respective grandmothers. Ian must have had several litres of beer, we topped everything off with dessert, all for a grand total of 80 zl, roughly 35 dollars. With bellies full Ian and I trotted off towards the Wawel Castle. We gained admittance into the Cathedral where we visited the sepulchres of the greatest Polish kings, queens, and bishops. Photography was sadly prohibited within however. The visit to the royal gardens was astounding, being able to make out the remnants of the maze and garden walls on the grounds. We then had our first experience with paid toilets, one which we are sure we will have to repeat once we visit Rome and Paris.

PS - We were able to locate one of the illusive 'Bar Mleczne' (Milk bars) on the square until the following day. Meals at such places could be had for as little as 2 dollars CDN.