Krakow: Schindler Factory and Bagels

I start the day with a tour of the famous factory where Oskar Schindler have saved over 1000 local jews by providing jobs, food and protection for them at great risk to himself.

I booked a guided tour which is very informative but be warned if you book the guided tour option you will not be able to freely roam the museum afterwards because it moves in a one way direction towards the exist. Do I think the tour is worth it, yes, but there are details in the museum I missed because I took the guided tour option.

As for the museum, it is more so about the complete history of the Jews during WWII with some of Oskar Schindlers work mixed in. They have interactive area where you walk through a walled area to get a feel how those that were moved into the ghetto must have felt.

The swastika is used on flooring as a sign of disrespect. Museum visitors are walking all over them.

There are some modern day lessons to be learned here like when Poland was being invaded by Nazis there were plenty of locals acting like everything is normal when it’s not. How many people would easily turn on their neighbors when given the chance or even a small bit of a payout. It makes you think the worst of humanity and while I would like to think we’ve grown past this behavior, I fear we have not. It was common to have families hidden underneath business and had to not make any noise. There were Nazis that went to buildings with stethoscopes to listen to any slight movement to see if someone was hidden in a building.

We learn about the ghettos and camps and working conditions that the Jewish people were under.

We also learn that Oskar Schindler himself is a flawed man. He was actually a nazi spy who profited off of the war but upon living in Krakow and working with Jewish people became sympathetic to their struggles. That is when he starting making his “list” of workers he needed for his factory of enamelware and ammunitions factories. When confronted with the ridiculousness of say employing children he would use excuses like he needs the “small hands” to clean the ammunition. In the end he saved about 1200 people.

After the museum I have lunch at a milk bar where I finally try to get to try one of my favorite dishes, golabki – cabbage rolls stuffed with barley and meat topped with mushroom cream sauce. I ordered a side dish because I thought I needed veggies (even though the cabbage was very filling) but I realize I bought a plate of three different types of coleslaw and I hate coleslaw – yes I know I should like it because I love cabbage but some reason coleslaw is ick to me. I also had another glass of kompot, this time I think it is plum.

I visit the nearby Bazylika Franciszkanów (St Francis Basilica). Even though I have church fatigue like I have castle fatigue I have this church on my list since it is decorated in Art Nouveau style. I am not disappointed. I love the inside decor, especially the stained glass windows.

Afterwards I finally try the polish version that that cream cake you find in all the Eastern Europe countries. It is so good. Each country has their own version of it.

This afternoon I’ve signed up for a bagel class but I’m early and discover a market across the street. I must return after my class. I love a market.

I have a class where I learn how to make the special “bagels” here in krakow. They aren’t actually called bagels even though tourists tend to call them that. They officially name is obwarzanek and they are specific to krakow. It is a bagel like bread that is braided into a ring then quickly boiled and then baked. A number of toppings can be on them but officially they are sold either sesame, poppy seed or salt. You can find them daily in blue carts all over town.

For our class the dough was pre-made for us to save time. I believe it is a simple recipe: flour, salt, yeast, water and some kind of fat, and maybe some sugar.

We are given the dough to split in two and roll into two equal long strings. Believe me it is harder than it looks. Then we attach the end and braid or twist together to two strings. Once we attach or seal the other end then the dough is dumped in boiling water for ten seconds. Only after then do we apply the topping. Then they are placed in the oven.

While we didn’t do any heavy duty cooking here today I did learn an interesting history lesson and got more of a feel for the polish culture.

Side note – The bagels in NYC are another polish/jewish export. They weren’t really popular here in Poland but immigrants were very successful bringing them to NYC.

After I sample some of my bagel I go back across the street and have some wine before dinner. The market closes soon so I won’t be here long.

During my first days in krakow I noticed a weirdly named wolf restaurant nearby. Come to find out it is a medieval-style restaurant where you have drinks made out of potions and you can pay with ducats instead of ZL. The food was decent enough and the whole create your own drink thing was fun. I have some friends who would really dig this place.

Before I forget this is the late night snack I had the night before. I am frequently calling ketchup a garbage condiment but forgive me when I say that ketchup 100 percent works as a Zapiekanka topping.

Also this breakfast a couple days ago was great.

For tomorrow I was supposed to take a day trip to a mountain town but I canceled those plans to stay local and sightsee at a slower place. The constant action is tiring me.

Krakow: Auschwitz-Birkenau

Today is not a day of fun but is more of a day of education. I think most educated folks know what happened in Poland in WWII and even if not you’ve seen a movie or two. I don’t want it to seem like a tourist attraction or anything but most people can benefit from visiting a place such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, to imagine what it might have been like there, and to make sure something like this never happens again.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is a forced labor or extermination or concentration camp or all of the above. Many were taken to these camps during WWII. Not all of them were Jewish but the majority were; there were also dissidents, roma, disabled, and homosexuals – all housed or exterminated at these camps. I say camps plural because although they worked together they were 3 kilometers apart.

The tour moves pretty quickly but takes you through a lot. You get the background of the facility and what it’s used for, you learn who was brought here and how it was determined who stayed to work and who got extermination. You learned the horrific way they were tricked into being exterminated, like they even had a choice.

There are displays of cases filled with women’s hair (they would cut off and sell women’s hair), shoes, prosthetic body parts, and luggage among other things.

Our first part of the tour was around Auschwitz but then we get in the van and drive to Birkenau for the final part of the tour. While the first part was more a museum and memorial the second part is to actually view the barracks. Also we see the platform where the trains arrived to and arrivals were sorted.

It’s hard to imagine but you must – being forced out of your homes being told to bring your most important things (that you can carry) and some food. The nazis wanted to give them impression that they were all just going to be “deported” to another country when most of them were getting on a train to be exterminated immediately. If they were strong they were going to a camp to work but probably eventually unalived as well.

A great resource on the camp’s numbers of people held can be found here. Most were Hungarian (400k) but the second highest were Polish (300k).

When I get back into town it is late. I grab something quick to eat then head back to my hotel for the night. It somehow doesn’t seem appropriate to food blog after the day I have had.

Take care and always be on the lookout for signs of fascist regimes.

Good night.

Krakow: Wieliczka Salt Mine

Today I booked a day tour to take me out to Wieliczka Salt Mine. I am sure I could have gotten out there myself but it’s one less thing I have to figure out.

My tour doesn’t start until ten o’clock so first it’s breakfast. I chose an interesting place a couple blocks away open early enough. I did not realize that I would end up getting the best breakfast I’d have in a long time (Gossip Cafe). I love the selection on my plate. To top it off they have coffee with plant based milk so my tummy will be less mad at me.

I meet up with my tour for a short 30 minute ride. The tour guide tells us that our tour of the mine won’t start for another 1.5 hours. It sounds like they were unable to get a start time right away. They made up for it by paying for entry to the nearby salt “spa” where we get to walk around and breathe therapeutic salt air.

When it is time for our tour of the mine we walk down 380 steps to get to the first level of which I believe there are 9 but we only tour 3 of them. We are 64 meters deep. We learn about the mine, gray salt, and how the salt is mined. We learn the requirements to be a miner.

They have many impressive salt sculptures as well as a pretty nice salt church. This isn’t my first salt church (first in the Colombia) but this probably has the most detailed sculptures in it.

Story about a ruler being returned her wedding ride by miner

Finally we make it to the salt church with its impressive carvings.

Pine used for support and salt makes it strong

Finally we go into a cavern where Chopin is played using lights to light up a statue.

We go further down to finally about 135 meters at the end.

It is a very long walk back to the elevators which we do get to take on the way up. However they shove us in there like sardines though.

After my tour I finally give myself some downtime and a happy hour on the patio of my hotel.

Dinner plans were to watch Klezmer music. (Authentic Jewish folk music). Despite an online recommendation I did end up at a bit of a tourist trap. The food and music were just ok but the music sounded so much better at the place next door. I did really enjoy my Zurek soup though.

Back to the hotel to rest since I have a long day at Auschwitz tomorrow.

Krakow: Food Tour and Nowa Huta

I wake up early today grab a coffee and head down to Plac Nowy in Kazimierz to start my food tour. There’s a market here today but vendors are just setting up for the day.

Our guide is a polish native, spent some years in Chicago but decided she missed living in Poland. There is only me and another woman on this tour today. My companion is very nice and in town for a couple weeks volunteering her time in Auschwitz.

We start in Plac Nowy in order to try Zapiekanka which I had tried yesterday. Today I try it with different toppings, more vegetables. So far I have not found a bad combination. I’ll have to just keep trying to see if there is one I don’t like 😀.

From here we go to the first stop at pub called Singer. Singer, a lively pub in the evenings, is only closed for about 3 hours in the morning. This historic bar of over 30 years is distinct because it is decorated with the theme of Singer sewing machines. The bar is filled with cute bistro tables with sewing machines on them. It is here that I try two vodkas: honey vodka and wormwood vodka. I admit that wormwood vodka is probably not most people’s favorite since it is kind of medicinal tasting but I quite like it.

The next stop is the “secret” stop of our secret food tour. We try a local take on shaksuka. The flavors of the sauce are perfect. Instead of a full egg it is the yolk only. It is all topped with sour cream (sour cream is what makes it polish). I also try a mulled beer. People know me well know that I never drink beer anymore because it tends to make me feel sick . I take a chance with this mulled beer, so far so good. With ginger and other spices it is very flavorful – something perfect for the cold holidays.

We walk toward old town to digest some food and our guide points out some things along the way.

The next stop is an official milk bar (Bar Mleczny) where I try some official pork pierogis and kompot fruit drink that sounds very easy to make at home.

Next we go to another shop where I get to try again the highland smoky sheep cheese but in the proper form warm grilled served with fruit sauce. It is salty but I enjoy it. I must go back to try some of the other cheeses. Apparently they travel well but I am too early in my travels to carry a bunch of cheese around with me.

Next we stop at another older pub called BaniaLuka, which was also recommended by another tour guide yesterday. Here I get to try bigos which is a sort of cabbage stew with meats like chicken and sausages. It is said to be an excellent hangover cure. Luckily so far I haven’t had enough alcohol to cause a hangover but now I know where to go if I do. I also try drinking a traditional lager to test my luck. I had ginger syrup added to it, apparently a thing people do, and I only drank about half because I didn’t want to press my luck with the beer issue.

Next we stop for a pączki, a polish doughnut. Trying the popular flavor of the yeast doughnuts, filled with wild rose jam topped with candied orange bits, is on my list so I am lucky to try one right out of the oven. The thing is you have to eat these things fresh. I’m notorious for taking a couple bites and squirreling away the rest for later and with pączki it’s just not the same.

Finally we stop at one more bar where I try another drink, this time a shot. The shot is a mix of polish limoncello and ginger syrup with pepper on top. When you drink it quickly it is said to taste like coca-cola and it does.

I say goodbye to tour guide and the other attendee because I am heading across town to check the planned community of Nowa Huta.

Nowa Huta was started in the 1950s when Poland was under the Soviet Union communist rule. It was set up as an ideal town with a steel mill with a neatly formed city to house the workers and families. The architecture is a mix of what you might see in Paris or London but some of it just looks brutalist to me. There is a lack of color and life you might see as you do in other parts of town but apparently these days it is a very popular place to live, especially since communism is long gone in Poland.

I especially enjoyed touring some of the underground in the Nowa Huta museum. Many emergency bunkers were built under the city in case of bombing because you have to remember this was all constructed during the Cold War. The museum also has exhibits on World War II and the Korean War and even the USA’s role in those wars. They definitely had a different propaganda machine going than we did.

The guide from the museum points out other things around town like underground air vents, an interesting church, and different types of architecture.

I visit a second museum that is associated with the Nowa Huta museum but is optional. It is not as extensive but worth a quick visit if time allows. It talks more about bunkers in general and other examples around the world.

Exhausted I catch the bus back to my part of town. Even after all the food I have had today I still feel like I need dinner so I grab something quick and head back to the hotel. I should be out enjoying the evening on a weekend but I am exhausted and I have another tour booked tomorrow.

A Good night.

Krakow: Kazimierz

Next morning as I am getting ready I hear the bugle in the distance since I am not too far. It’s nice to have my windows open even though it’s wet air outside.

Today is expected to rain all day. I am not looking forward to it but I think I am prepared (Update – I am not!).

Usually my goal is to find a coffee shop when I wake up in the wee hours like I tend to do but like most European towns coffee shops open too late for my liking except for Starbucks which I try to avoid. Today I actually slept in a bit and believe it or not coffee wasn’t first on my mind. Today I am hungry and need to find breakfast somewhere near by. I decide to try the milk bar around the corner that I have on my radar to visit. A milk bar is a polish specific type of restaurant that offers affordable local dishes cafeteria style at times. I think the origin is from the communist era where they would provide government subsidized meals (many dairy items). The one around the corner from me is small but popular and often has a line outside. This morning I am able to walk in and get a table.

I order a traditional breakfast of egg, bacon and toast. I also order a latte since you can’t expect me to totally forgo the coffee – I am addicted. I especially liked that they had Depeche Mode playing the entire time I was there.

After breakfast I walk down to Kazimierz, about a 20 minute walk. I am early for my tour so I wander around the area. It has already been sprinkling which is annoying but it’s not too bad yet. I meet up with the local tour guide who starts us on a tour of the former Jewish area of Krakow. This is not the ghetto, which we will see later, but it was home to a Jewish community at different points in history. Apparently there is a history of expelling Jews from Krakow that did not start with WWII. The area is called Kazimierz because he is the king who originally made an agreement with Jewish people to let them live there and be provided protection. Once he was gone the agreement wasn’t always upheld and the community went varying degrees of persecution but the worst happened when the nazis invaded Poland. Over that period of time the population went from 65,000 to less than 5000. They were sent to concentration camps, or forced into labor to live in the Jewish ghetto. Eventually most in the ghetto came to and end during the liquidation of the ghetto, including many kids in the most horrific ways that I don’t even want to document here but you can google it if you want to know what had happened.

We stop by the Remuh Synagogue and cemetery. I will return later to visit this 16th century synagogue. My guide tells us this historic cemetery was used as a garbage dump by the nazis during WWII and it took a heck of an excavation to restore it. They aren’t even sure they placed the headstones correctly. It is very sad to hear a that place like this was disrespected so badly.

Schindlers Passage, not a real historical spot but was used in movie

We walk across the bridge to the Jewish Ghetto where the Jewish people that did remain in town lived during the war. They were not allowed to leave the walled area except for work. The food rations they were given were just enough to keep them from starving.

We end the tour at Plac Bohaterów Getta (Ghetto Hero’s Square), a place where they would select people to send to the camps. It is a solemn place, they have 65 chairs to represent the 65 thousand Jews that used to live in town. Most chairs point in the direction of the ghetto but there is one that faces Oscar Schindler’s factory.

After the tour I head back to Plac Nowy to have a quick lunch. I try the Zapiekanka which is basically a French bread pizza. It hits the spot.

I am soaked since my raincoat is useless and I am cold but St Marys tower is only open for the weekend and this might be the only day I can go so I rush back down to St Marys to buy tickets for the tower and church. The goal is to catch the bugle player while I am up there but unfortunately I am assigned a time that has me totally missing the bugle playing. Apparently you are only allowed to stay up there 30 minutes. It is very overcast so not the greatest picture taking but at least I warmed up and got one heck of a workout climbing the steps.

Before the tower I did visit the church where I got to see the Veit Stoss Altarpiece, a very ornate and distinct wooden altar piece. It is only opened for viewing limited hours a day.

After the church I walk over to Rynek underground museum that was way more impressive than I expected. I ended up spending about two hours there. In the early 2000’s there was a huge effort to excavate the town square because below existed a historic market place underneath the existing square. This museum showcases what was discovered during that excavation.