Krakow

The overnight train wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was in a 3 bed cabin with a couple of young lads from Liverpool, and we chatted for a good while, swapping experiences and anecdotes of our respective travels. It was absolutely sweltering in there, so we propped the sliding window open, which kept springing shut of its own accord, with a couple of plastic coat hangers. I'm pretty sure the conductor would have shouted at us for that one if he saw. But he didn't. It wasn't the greatest night's sleep, due to the heat and me being a bit too long for the bed, and also it was a little inconvenient getting into Krakow at half 6 in the morning when everything's shut, but it was a good way to do an 8 hour train ride and saves on accommodation for a night.

It was another clear blue day, and the main square in Krakow looked absolutely great in the early morning haze. All I could do was wander about, exploring the streets of the old town and learning my way around, as it was way too early to get into my hostel. As a medieval town, I was told it was very traditional, but in all my hours of walking I didn't see one 'Polski Sklep' sign. Lies!

A bit later I decided to walk up to Oskar Schindler's factory, now a museum, and did my best to stay in the shade all the way. I was already conscious of a rather grubby feeling, having not been able to shower since my night on the train, and thought that baking in the sun probably wouldn't improve matters. At least no one crowded round me in the museum.

His desk. Supposedly.

Poland has had a pretty crappy time in modern history. The museum doesn't focus all that much on Schindler himself, but chronicles the horrendous plight of Krakow through the Second World War as a whole, particularly the fates of its Polish and Jewish inhabitants. It wasn't just an occupation, but an entire rebranding of the city as a German one, totally erasing the Polish history within Krakow, importing German culture and place names and even planning to redesign the city's layout and architecture to encompass a facist-Roman influence. It very nearly could have been gone forever.

A 30 minute movie in the very comfortable cinema screen there focused a lot more on Schindler, taking first hand accounts from those who were once workers in his factory to really highlight on an emotional level how much he protected and how much more he provided for his workers than any other Polish or Jewish workforce in the country. By no means a perfect man, his determination to prevent his workers from being sent to the concentration camps saved dozens of lives, and is a moving testament to the good a person can do, regardless of their political allegiances, history or vices. A plaque outside the museum reads 'Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire'.

I was finally able to get into my hostel room when I got back into town, and thankfully the shower was actually a half decent one. I stayed in the hostel for a little while, writing and sorting a few things out on the internet, until it was a little later and a little cooler in the afternoon. I took a stroll around the market square for what ended up well over an hour, just being; it's a great place for that. As it got busier, I wandered more of the side streets again, generally just people-watching, seeing all those heading off on their evenings out. The market square is incredibly busy, especially on evenings as lovely as yesterday's, and getting a table for dinner looked extremely unlikely. Instead of waiting around, as I had to be up early, I grabbed something on the go and headed back to the hostel. No one sharing my room was there yet, which didn't bode well for my good night's sleep. But I had to wait to see...

View from the hostel Window