When moving to a new city, there's always so much to explore, experience, and learn. I've been in Cracow for a month now and like to think I've put in a pretty good effort in the above mentioned things. But I learned even more this weekend.
On Saturday, I took a free walking tour of Cracow. It was less than 20 degrees with the wind chill, but still a very enjoyable experience. The tour lasted about 2.5 hours and it mainly focused on the Old Town (Market Square included) and Wawel Castle (that's right, I live in a city with a castle...be jealous). We hit many famous spots in the city: St. Mary's Church, the City Hall Tower, Cloth Hall, the Barbican, the Florian Gate, the Papal Window, and ended at Wawel. It was a really interesting tour and we had a very witty guide--always appreciated when learning about history.
Sunday started with an enjoyable walk through the city since the weather was beautiful. A group of friends and I headed towards Wawel Castle once more to tour some of the castle--some of the rooms offer free admission on Sundays. We also visited the Cathedral on Wawel hill, a place of implicit importance for Poland. It is the final resting place of the kings of Poland along with others who were very important to Polish life and culture. We ended the day with a short walk along the river and dinner.
Even after being here a month, one of my favorite spots in the city (though I still have so much more of the city to discover) is still Market Square. It is the largest square in Europe and is the only square today that is still used for the same purpose as it was in Medieval times--for the trading and selling of goods (Cloth Hall). Despite the season, it was packed full of people on Sunday (the sun was finally cooperating and the temperature was almost 40 degrees). There was so much life going on there; horse-drawn carriage rides, kids and grandparents feeding the endless hoards of pigeons, vendors selling fresh flowers, tourists and locals alike admiring and taking in the sites. It gives the city a vibrancy that I have yet to feel in the other Polish cities I've visited, though my list is very short.
I definitely feel like I'm in a city that suits me well here. Even more that I'm in exactly the right place that I should be at this time in my life. In fact, I haven't been this happy since I lived in Italy (though Italy is still more of a home than Cracow to me and always will be). But it helps that Cracow reminds me of Italy in certain ways, like the narrow cobblestone roads and parts of the Medieval fortification that still exist around the Old Town (Macerata, where I lived in Italy, was still surrounded by the Medieval fortification walls). There's so much culture in Cracow, too--always a museum to go to, a concert to see, an opera to attend, a historic site to tour. Boredom, at least at this point, seems virtually impossible. There are so many cafes, pubs, restaurants (vegetarian ones at that too!), and clubs to visit it seems like I won't have time for all of them even in the five months that I have here. Since living in Italy, I've had a yearning to move to Europe--maybe not permanently, but for a time at least. Cracow has only enhanced that feeling. There's just something about Europe for me, some irresistible pull that is hard to verbalize. In the simplest terms, my soul feels at home here.
I added a few photos to the post: sunset on the Vistula River, me on Wawel hill, a shot of Market Square, and me in front of the castle (all my Cracow pics are at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2497621&id=22425039&l=d9e8509c5d). Until next time, do zobaczenia!
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