Poland Travel Guide
A visit to Poland is a journey to a land of myths, magic, romance, rolling plains and very warm and friendly people, and to a nation being born anew -- yet again.
Since its birth in the 10th century, The Republic of Poland has a very long track record of ups and downs, death and rebirth. Now in the early 21st century, this little country -- just a bit larger than the state of New Mexico -- is a phoenix rising and just beginning to find stride again after its last down. A bit more than a decade after becoming the first of Eastern Europe to awake and emerge from 45 years beneath the iron curtain, Poland has yawned, stretched joined the European Union in May of this year and is ready to get on with the future.
Poland's stereotyped reputation has often been that of a state of chubby cabbage-eating peasant farmers who play the tuba and do a funny three-step dance called the Polka and drink a lot of beer. Not quite. The people and land of Poland are much more than that and want much more than that. It is actually a land rich in culture and history and political action. It was Poland's late 20th century move to re-legalize trade union Solidarity and an agreement to hold partially free parliamentary elections that started the shock waves that began the dramatic 1989 domino-like collapse of Eastern European governments that transformed the Soviet Union and shifted the balance of power throughout the world.
The center and main storehouse of this country's rich cultural and political history is in its former political and still cultural capital, Kraków.
Overview of Kraków
Kraków, Poland's cultural, and once political capital, is a richly beautiful, historic and culture-packed city that will transport you quickly back to the 13th century upon arrival and in a breath whisk you right back again into the 21st.
It was the death of a dragon that gave birth to what is now Poland's third largest city, and legend has it that the dragon's bones reside in the city's hilltop castle to this day. Kraków, like mother Poland, is a city of myths, romance legends and dreams, where the past meets the present and the imaginary the real. You'll find a Royal Castle, storybook streets, Baroque spires, artsy cellar cafes and hip nightclubs and, not far from one of the city's historic gates, fast food.
Kraków is one of the few Polish cities that escaped devastation during WWII and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Until as recently as the 19th century there was a moat encircling the Old Town; now a lush, green, sun dappled park, called Planty, encircles the city. The center of Kraków is the Main Market Square, a medieval textile bazaar where Polish kings came the day after their coronations to meet the city's burghers and receive homage and tribute in the name of all the towns of Poland.
One of Poland's oldest cities and home of its oldest university, Kraków is full of both buildings and customs that date from the 13th and 14th centuries and numerous stories and tales that color the city. Every hour, from the tower of St. Mary's Church, a bugle call sounds toward the four quarters of the world before it is dramatically interrupted, as it was in the past as an enemy arrow hit the bugler warning the city of the coming invasion. Each summer solstice (the shortest night of the year), just like centuries ago, Kraków's citizenry go down to the Vistula River to practice the ancient pagan custom of floating wreaths down the river, accompanied by a fireworks display and performances that bring various events from the city's history back to life. You'll find Renaissance street performers, a market square Renaissance street theater, gypsy street merchants and the like.
You can spend, say, three to four days in Kraków to take in the sights, galleries, and museums. Four days will give you time for a very forceful day's journey to the Holocaust Museum at Auschwitz (or as it's known in Poland, Oswiecim) and nearby Birkenau. You could also fit in an interesting afternoon jaunt over to an ancient salt mine, which is full of centuries worth of its miners' art. Five days will give you time to hang out on the main square where you'll find great people watching and street performer viewing from the many restaurants ringing the square and lining the side lanes off it. A good day is awakening in your restored Gothic hotel room, breakfast at a bright street cafe, a tour and wander of the Palace, museums, and shops, a wild game dinner in a gothic garden restaurant, an evening walk along romantic cobbled streets with violinists playing on the corners, a dance at a nightclub or a drink at a cellar pub. There's also always the horse-drawn cab rides around Old Town and the opera.
