8 replies to this topic

[Anthony Bonner]

Mrs. Bonner is off to the familial homeland next week. She'll be spending a few days in Krakow - anyone been or have any sort of advice? The rest of her time I fear will be on a farm outside Rzechow.

[SethG]

Krakow is a beautiful town. My wife and I were there in 2001. Gosh that's a long time ago.

Not much to say about the food.

It is a nice town to walk around in and it is very pleasant to sit in the central square drinking Okocim beer.

It is a prime location for Holocaust stuff. The historical jewish ghetto in Krakow had (at the time we visited) a series of good exhibits in several small buildings. And of course if one is up for it Krakow is very close to Auschwitz and Birkenau.

[Suzanne F]

Gee that sounds like fun.

[SLBunge]

I was there in the summer of 2007 and got some advice and made some posts here.

I have ex-inlaws who were there teaching at Jagelonian last fall. I'll ask if they have any current recommendations.

[Sneakeater]

Gee that sounds like fun.

I know someone who did that on her honeymoon.

And took her mother along with her and her new husband for it.

[SethG]

I have fond memories of Krakow, I did think it was very charming.

Obviously the Holocaust stuff isn't "fun" and I wasn't at all sure I wanted to see that stuff. But in retrospect I am glad I did.

[SethG]

I have fond memories of Krakow, I did think it was very charming.

Obviously the Holocaust stuff isn't "fun" and I wasn't at all sure I wanted to see that stuff. But in retrospect I am glad I did.

And you know every one of these Eastern European cities has a former Jewish ghetto and some sort of commemoration, Budapest, Prague iirc... I'm hazy on the details but I remember Krakow's as the nicest that we saw.

And about the food: we were visiting some friends of mine in the foreign service, stationed in Krakow. So our friends had been there a while and knew some of the places to go. I have this fond memory of being taken through some institutional building (it seemed like a Soviet-era joke of some sort), and into a cafeteria-like space in which a very large woman in a hairnet served me excellent pierogies. We never would have found this place on our own and I can't tell you a name. But we enjoyed it!

Another thing I remember is that you had to pay the bathroom attendant in most establishments in order to use the facilities; usually it cost a zloty. My wife and I developed a euphemism. When we needed to use the bathroom we would say "I have to go drop a zloty."

[Sneakeater]

Of course, people who aren't Jewish may or may not share your and my interest in visiting (generally former, the way things went in the '40s) ghettos (my interest in that is pretty intense) and Holocaust sites.

[Daisy]

My sister went to Krakow and loved it.

Of Auschwitz she said, did I want to go? Not really. Am I glad I did? Absolutely.