Poland: Krakow

Krakow was probably the most interesting city I had the chance to visit in my two weeks on the road. There is so much history there, and the architecture has a unique central European flair that is exotic and elegant with a little bit of mystery.

A good place to start a tour of the city is Wawel Hill.  A citadel has stood here since the 11th century, and a few hundred years ago it was the home of the Polish kings.  During the Austrian Occupation it was transformed into a military barracks, but today the Royal Palace and the Krakow Cathedral have been restored to their former glory.  You can tour an exhibition where they have excavated some of the original medieval buildings that were "lost" until only a few decades ago when they began to do archaeological work on the hill.

The Wawel Royal Castle was the seat of the Polish government until 1596, when the capital moved to Warsaw. The castle is built in the Renaissance style, with a spacious central courtyard.  The State Rooms have been restored to what they would have looked like in the 16th century, including the Throne Room, famous for the wooden carvings of heads of courtiers that look down at you from the ceiling!

 Central courtyard of the Wawel Royal Castle.  I particularly liked the frescos on the right hand side of the third story. 

Also part of the Wawel complex is the stunning Krakow Cathedral, built in the 14th century.  What made it so special in my opinion was how it is a collection of different chapels, each built in a different style.  Somehow this mis-mash of architectural styles comes together to make one of the most beautiful buildings in the city.  The cathedral is the resting place of most of the Polish kings, and of Lech Kaczynski (and his wife), the President of Poland who died in a plane crash in Russia in 2010.  I had the opportunity to climb to the top of the bell tower, which offered a beautiful view of the Vistula river and of the bells that are still in use today.  One of the highlights was the silver coffin containing the relics of St. Stanislaw, patron saint of the cathedral.

Krakow Cathedral. The bell tower is the green one on the left. 

 Krakow Cathedral.  You can see part of the Royal Castle - the beige building with the orange roof on the right.

Krakow Cathedral.

 Tomb of Lech and Maria Kaczynski, in the crypt of Krakow Cathedral.  There were lots of people taking pictures and kissing the tomb.  General Sikorski, a military and political hero from WWII, is also buried here.  Krakow Cathedral and Wawel Hill are important symbols of Polish nationhood.

 One of the newer buildings on Wawel Hill. And by new, I mean only a few hundred years old!  Lots of couples taking wedding photos here, with such a beautiful backdrop. 

One of the ways to get back down the hill is through the Dragon's Lair - a winding staircase that leads to a series of caves and tunnels at the base of the hill.  

The Dragon's Lair.  Didn't see any dragons...

At the centre of the old town is the enormous Market Square (Rynek Glowny), one of the largest in Europe and which has stood since the early middle ages.  The square is teeming with tourists from all over, and for good reason!  There are palaces and churches (including the magnificent St. Mary's) and it's lined with outdoor cafes and restaurants.  In the middle is the grand 14th century Cloth Hall, which is filled today with souvenir shops.  A favourite souvenir is Baltic Amber, with shops and stalls selling it everywhere!  There was a folk music festival going on and a market, so one day for dinner I enjoyed some traditional perogies in the square while watching the festival.  I really liked one of the Polish beers, Tyskie. I don't think they sell that at the Beer Store back in Kingston unfortunately!

Market Square.  Lots of horse-drawn carriage tours. On the left is the Cloth Hall, and on the right is the tower of the old city hall.  The rest of the hall was torn down, leaving just the tower.  The folk festival and market were going on just behind the umbrellas.

A shot of the tower and the Cloth Hall from the other side of the square.

Cloth Hall again.  The square is so large, its hard to show just how big it is in a photograph.

Market Square, with St. Mary's Cathedral in the centre.

St. Mary's at night.  Every hour, a trumpet calls from the left tower.  The song is left unfinished, in memory of the trumpeter who was shot with an arrow while sounding the alarm. 

Inside St. Mary's.  There's so much colour, when you walk in your jaw will immediately drop and you have to stop for a minute to take it all in!

I was in Krakow for 3 days (with day trips to Auschwitz / Birkenau and the Wieliczka Salt Mine), and one of my favourite things to do every day was stroll around the narrow streets of the old town with a gelato in hand!  Poland is fairly inexpensive, and they have very good ice cream for about 1$.  They haven't adopted the Euro yet, and 1 CAD is equal to about 3 zloty.  

The Old Town.

The Old Town.  At the right hand side are the remnants of the old city wall.  Today only a few towers still stand.  The rest of the wall was torn down and the space transformed into a beautiful park (the Planty) that surrounds the old town.

Old Town.  You can see the tower of St. Mary's Cathedral at the end of the street. 

Old Town.  This building is a luxury hotel.

Old Town. Lots of brands we have in Canada, mixed in with plenty of jewelry stores selling Baltic amber.

One thing you will be hard-pressed not to see in Poland are pictures of Pope John Paul II, probably the most famous Pole of our age.  There are posters and postcards and statues of him everywhere!  Before he was pope, he was the Archbishop of Krakow, so his residence in the Old Town has been transformed into a museum.  About 90% of Poles are Catholic, and about 60% are practicing, making Poland one of the most devout countries in Europe.  Consequently, there are tonnes of churches!!! In the Old Town you will see one on about every other block, or more!  Also lots of nuns and friars walking in the streets. 

Residence of Pope John Paul II, while he was Archbishop of Krakow.

Church. I don't remember the name of this one - there are too many!

This church is quite old, 13th century I think.

One evening I had the opportunity to attend the performance of a string quintet, inside the magnificent church of SS Peter and Paul.  It was quite an experience, with beautiful music (Vivaldi's Four Seasons, music from Schindler's List and The Mission, as well as other classical and modern selections) in a stunning, centuries-old church.  Another evening I went to a small Chopin piano concert in one of the palatial hotels on the main market square.  I used to study piano so it was quite a special experience.  Although the pianist was apparently having a very bad day and broke down into tears halfway through, the music was lovely and it will be a memorable occasion in more ways than one!

Church of SS Peter and Paul.

Chandelier inside the palace / hotel hosting the Chopin concert.

 My hostel was located just outside of the Old Town, in the Kazimierz District.  This was the main centre of the substantial Jewish population in Krakow before WWII, and there are many Jewish-owned shops and synagogues today.  Many buildings have been restored, and the district still has a very old-world feel to it.  Miraculously, the Remu'h Cemetery at the centre of Kazimierz has remained intact through the centuries, and now contains a Wailing Wall in memory of the Jews of Krakow in WWII.  Holocaust survivors have returned to place plaques in memory of their family near the adjoining synagogue - one was put up by two brothers who were the only survivors of an extended family of 87 people.

A street in the Kazimierz District.

 I really liked this building.   Very old-world, minus the satellite dishes!

Street in the Kazimierz.  There is a marvellous bakery on this street!

Restored buildings in the Kazimierz.

Tombstones in the Remu'h Cemetery.

The High Synagogue.

I could definitely have spent longer in Krakow - there is so much to see and do here! So many museums and interesting streets to wander.  It was quite hot at the end of August though, I would recommend visiting in May-June or September.  

Poland: Warsaw

The Polish countryside is quite beautiful - a mix of farmland and forests.  My train arrived in Warsaw mid-day.   The first thing you see when you leave the train station is the Palace of Culture in Science - a gift for the people of Warsaw from the USSR. When it was built in the 50s, it was then second tallest building in Europe! It's still very controversial, people either love it or hate it.

Palace of Culture and Science

Travel is rapidly becoming easier, what with iPods and phones that can log on to the internet any where and the widespread use of wifi hotspots.  It's kind of depressing, but my first meal in Europe was at a McDonalds because they had free wifi!  Once I got to Warsaw, I found some free internet and located a hostel that had an opening for that night.

I set out to explore the city on foot, which only took a few hours.  The city was devastated during WWII, so much of the beautiful old buildings were destroyed.  The Old Town area, however, was rebuilt, and there is a beautiful town square.  My hostel was right across the street from the Frédéric Chopin Museum.  The Poles love Chopin - he lived most of his life in France I believe, but was born in Poland and used a lot of folk influences in his piano compositions.

The Frédéric Chopin Museum.

I went for a walk down the Krakowskie Przedmiescie - the main street in Warsaw, with many buildings restored after the war.  Lined with churches, palaces, and the beautiful facade of the University of Warsaw, this is quite a lovely street.  

Statue of Nicholas Copernicus, the famous Polish astronomer.

 The main street: Krakowskie Przedmiescie.

One of many churches on the Krakowskie Przedmiescie.

View of Zygmunt's Column, where the Krakowskie Przedmiescie ends at the Plac Zamkowy (plaza).

At the end of the Krakowskie Przedmiescie is the Plac Zamkowy, the plaza in front of the Royal Castle.  The Castle is unusual in that it was once both the home of the Polish Royal Family and the seat of Parliament at the same time.  King Zygmunt's Column stands at the centre of the square, sword in hand, ready to pounce on invaders.

Royal Castle in Plac Zamkowy

Zygmunt's Column at twilight.

From Plac Zamkowy, I wandered along the narrow streets to the Old Town Square.  These seem to be a feature of most old cities and towns, lined with beautiful old townhouses, palaces and churches, and covered with outdoor cafés and restaurants.  It is quite lively into the evening, with live music and beautifully illuminated buildings.

Old Town Square.

Old homes on a narrow street.  This picture is one of my favourites.  

Germany (briefly!): Frankfurt and Berlin

My toothbrush is packed, my liquids are in a regulation 1L plastic bag, and I've triple checked that my passport and plane-ticket are in my backpack. I'm ready for my European adventure, and the only thing standing between me and my red-eye flight to Frankfurt is... wait for it... yep! You guessed it! Traffic jam on the Deerfoot. I'm sure the Calgarians reading this blog can appreciate my angst when it's 10 pm and the construction crews have got the only road to the airport down to one lane.

I landed safely in Frankfurt the next day at 5pm local time, and hopped on a train to the city centre. There's a night train to Berlin, where I can connect on  to Warsaw, my first destination.  I have a few hours to kill, so I set out to explore the city, one of the main economic centres of Europe.  

Frankfurt was founded on the banks of the Main, and is one of the few European cities to have a skyline.  There were lots of boats on the river - I read somewhere that more goods are transported by boat in Germany than by truck!  Lots of beautiful old museums and cathedrals.

 Bridge over the Main.

Frankfurt skyline at sunset.

Watchtower.

I wasn't really following a map, so I was very delighted to stumble upon the charming Römerberg, or the Old Town Square.  It's a charming collection of houses built between the 15th and 18th centuries.  Some of them are built in the traditional half-timbered style, known as the Ostzeile. The square was lined with outdoor cafes and people enjoying the summer evening, under the shadow of the Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus), rebuilt after WWII.

Ostzeile on the Römerberg (Old Town Square).

My train to Berlin was a "couchette" - a night train but without sleeper cars (with fold-down bunk beds).  A couchette is a reclining seat with a kind of plastic canopy over you, more comfortable than a normal seat but still quite awkward for sleeping.  I had about 2 hours in Berlin before my train to Warsaw departed, so I figured it would be a good idea to stretch my legs and see a bit (a very small bit!) of the city.  The Hauptbahnhof (train station) was right near the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate, so I went to have a look.  My first thought of Berlin is usually of the Brandenburg Gate - it's such a symbol of the history of the city - from the first unification of Germany to it's role in the division of the city into East and West Germany, and now as a symbol of German economic and political power. Two hours are definitely not enough to see this city! I hope I will have a chance to visit is properly later this year.

The sun rising behind the Reichstag (German Parliament building)

The Brandenburg Gate.

Backpacking in Northeastern Europe

All summer I had been studying hard for the MCATs (Medical College Admission Tests), the most soul-sucking, emotionally draining and physically exhausting 5 and 1/2 hour exam I have ever sat through. The great day of reckoning was August 5th, around the same time I was wrapping up my project as a summer student in a developmental biology lab at the University of Calgary. There were still a few weeks left before I needed to start school in Lyon, so it seemed a perfect time to use some of my savings (you don’t spend much money when you’re studying all summer!) and go backpacking in northeastern Europe.

My plan was to fly to Frankfurt, and then... thats where the plan ended! I had a Russian tourist visa and a flight from Stockholm to Lyon booked for September, but that was about the extend of my planning! Although greatly tempted to spend hours on end researching places to visit and organizing an itinerary, I really wanted to focus of studying for the MCATs so I really hadn’t done much in the way of planning. Isn’t that the beauty of backpacking, I told myself? Jumping on the next train to a new city when it’s time to move on, booking a hostel the day before, asking other tourists what sites they enjoyed and reading my guide book?

I had a couple of reasons for visiting northeastern Europe first:

1) Visiting the cold places in the summer > visiting the cold places in the winter

2) Far from Lyon, so visit when I have two weeks off to save travel time

3) It is a huge pain to get a Russian visa, and you have to organize it about a month in advance, so much easier to do while I’m in Canada.

The general idea was to visit Warsaw and Krakow in Poland first, then make my way up the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), spend a few days in St. Petersburg, then head to Finland to visit my friend (and fellow Queen’s student) Jordan, on exchange to Helsinki. After that, I would spend a few days in Sweden, then fly from Stockholm to Lyon. Serendipitously, my flight from Stockholm to Lyon had a connection in Frankfurt, so I could leave a suitcase in storage and pick it up on my way back to Lyon!

Welcome to My Year in Lyon!

Hey there! Welcome to “My Year in Lyon” - a blog I’ve set up to share with you my experiences on exchange to CPE Lyon in France. In my second year of Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University in Canada, I decided it would be a good idea to go on exchange - and why not to France?! I will be here in Lyon for two semesters, from September ‘11 until June ‘12, so lots of opportunities for adventure, and chances to explore some other European cities while I’m here. Please feel free to leave suggestions for ways to improve the blog, or interesting places to visit!

Photo-viewing hint: If you single click on a photograph, it will appear in a viewer where it's larger and you can easily browse through the photos in a post.

Credit to my guide books, "Eastern & Central Europe", "Europe" and "France", published by DK Eyewitness Travel (Dorling Kindersley) for historical tidbits and buckets of inspiration!