Krakow
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Did I say I loved Vienna just a few days ago?
Well.. sounds frivolous but..
I LOVE KRAKOW!!!
Just roaming around in the small Old Town Square made me feel superbly good. The whole square is bustling with activity. Unlike Prague Old Town Square which is bustling with activity from TOURISTS.. Krakow's full of locals (at least no visible signs of organised Tour Groups) buzzing around the marketplace. The architecture around the square's not strikingly attention grabbing but sits nicely around watching peacefully at it's inhabitants. And the atmosphere's filled with not only salivating aromas of grilled meat from the stalls in the square, but an enchanting medley of peddlers selling their wares as well as ultra pro buskers performing their art to their small audience around them. Seriosly the buskers are damn good.. from soprano singers crooning with a harp to accordian quartets.. they all sound great. What's cool is every hour, there will be a trumpeter playing his bugle from the top of this particular St. Mary's Basilica.. supposedly as a tribute to a famous 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before the Mongol attack on the city. I'm a big fan of live music. So this hourly gig beats the Prague's Astronomical Clock hands down.
Gosh I could spend a whole day there. Just to soak up the atmosphere.
Well.. the earlier visit to the Wawel Castle was kinda a laugh-cry event. Good that it's not too far away from our hostel.. just about a 10 mins walk.. bad coz the English tours to a certain Private Apartment attractions were sold out.. Good that we could choose which parts of the castle we want to visit.. and hence not pay so much.. bad coz those attractions that we visited were quite crap.. the only good attraction that I liked was thie Dragon's Inn.. an underground tavern.. and it's really underground.. imagine drinking in dug caves.. cool rite? What's even cooler was there was a fire-breathing stone dragon at the exit of the Dragon's Inn. Wow.
Dinner was self-cooked. Fried pasta with eggs and luncheon meat and it was delicious. Though we spent a lof of time cooking (in batches) because of the small size of cooking utensils. Still, it was fun.
So yeah.. I love this place. 2 more days here. Looks like it has so much more to offer. =)
Signed off at
5:25 am
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