A Day in Krakow

Somewhere along the line, this Europe trip morphed from a fun post-Jay’s graduation backpacking trip to an opportunity for me to fill huge gaps in my knowledge. I never liked history. I thought it was dry and a waste of space in my brain, making it exceedingly difficult for any of my history teachers to teach me anything. That plus the 8 years it’s been since I’ve taken a history class put me in a position of extreme ignorance about the world before my lifetime. As we’ve traveled along, I’ve become fascinated the historical aspect of Europe and now believe that I need to spend this time to learn a little more about the world. Particularly regarding the atrocities of the Holocaust. After visiting Dachau outside Munich, I have come to think of it as my responsibility to the victims to learn as much about the Holocaust as I can while in Europe. Naturally, Auschwitz became a non-negotiable destination.

So that’s how we ended up in Krakow for one day, on the way to Auschwitz. I braved the pouring rain to do a walking tour around the city, and then Jay and I headed out to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. I had this idea in my head that Krakow was completely destroyed by the war, but actually it is almost completely original. In a sense it is exactly the opposite of Prague: everything within the old city walls (now a nice circular esplanade) is historic and everything outside is a modern city. Krakow is more economically built than most historic European cities. Instead of importing fancy materials, all buildings not built by the king are red brick from the nearby Tatra Mountains. Some churches have a marble front face, but go around to the side and it is red brick like everything else. The other thing that is omnipresent in Krakow is Pope John Paul the Second, since he was an archbishop there. Krakow’s a nice enough city, but I didn’t feel any special affiliation with it. 

The biggest open historic square in Europe, apparently.

Marble on the front, red brick on the side

Cluster of cathedrals on Wawel Hill, former seat of Poland's monarchy

The Salt Mine was two hours of awesome followed by an hour of terrible which unfortunately nullified the awesome bit. Here I will write it in reverse chronological so that maybe the awesome can redeem itself.

The Terrible: 100 people per half hour sent down the stairs into the mine have to get back out somehow. Which meant a full hour of standing in various lines in tunnels with pushing and yelling Europeans as they sent us nine at a time up an old mine shaft lift. The only reason Jay did not have a sensory overload induced panic attack was because he was so worried about me. The only reason I did not have a sensory overload induced panic attack was because I was focusing intently on sending positive vibes to the woman next to us who was having a panic attack. We got outside (FINALLY) and I immediately started hyperventilating and burst into tears. It was awful. I would never recommend this experience to anyone if they do not figure out another way to get folks back out of the mine.

The Awesome:  The Wieliczka Salt Mine was a functioning salt mine from the 13^th century until 1996, when the potential profits from tourism exceeded the profits from salt. The mine has 245 km of tunnels and 2,400 excavated chambers. The “tourist route” covers only 2% of the mine and still takes two hours. The chambers and tunnels are supported by wood beams, which are petrified by the salt into fabulously strong supports. Also in the mine are 40 chapels, lots of salt sculptures made by the miners, a performance hall, two restaurants, a reception hall, and wifi internet. Finally, in the biggest chamber was the location of the first underground bungee jumping and hot air balloon ride! I had never been in a salt museum before and was struck by some big differences between Colorado coal mining and Poland salt mining, primary being the safety issue. Salt mining was actually considered a great job and was passed down hereditarily from father to son. The really dangerous parts (like burning the underground gases) were given to prisoners and so not too many actual employees died in the mine. Nowadays the salt saturated air is considered one of the best rehabilitations for a variety of lung problems and people come from all over the world to a rehab center in the mine!

Yup, that's a 500 year old wench. 4-8 men could move 300kg of salt.

Petrified wood supports

The last supper carved in salt

Salt chandelier

A reception hall

No luck, the terrible still outweighs the awesome. Oh well, I guess not every part of the trip can be a win.