KRAKOW – “World’s Fastest Walkers”
Well, I’m so far behind on our travels that I better stay in sequence and get back to our travels through Poland, just to make sure that I don’t lose anyone along the way. This will be the first of three entries on Poland, so please read on my friends.
We dove right into Poland by arriving in the historical and architectural gem of Krakow. And although I really liked exploring the old city, castle, churches, and parks, I frankly 
found the areas just outside the old city kind of a mess. Our room (with fridge and hot water) was about a mile north of the entrance to the old city; however, it was just a little too far from the trams to be convenient, and the walking was awful to and from the place, since the sidewalks and intersections are blocked with cars. Everyone weaves around the cars and the little space left is too little to walk side by side, so Cheryl and I would literally walk full speed single file for a mile. An odd consequence of these miserable walking conditions (oh and there are lots of people walking), seems to be that people clearly just want to get thru the area as fast as possible. We had old ladies pass us walking at 4 mph, and the younger folks hit nearly 6 mph. Yup, wolds fastest walkers. Don’t stop to tie your shoes.
found the areas just outside the old city kind of a mess. Our room (with fridge and hot water) was about a mile north of the entrance to the old city; however, it was just a little too far from the trams to be convenient, and the walking was awful to and from the place, since the sidewalks and intersections are blocked with cars. Everyone weaves around the cars and the little space left is too little to walk side by side, so Cheryl and I would literally walk full speed single file for a mile. An odd consequence of these miserable walking conditions (oh and there are lots of people walking), seems to be that people clearly just want to get thru the area as fast as possible. We had old ladies pass us walking at 4 mph, and the younger folks hit nearly 6 mph. Yup, wolds fastest walkers. Don’t stop to tie your shoes.The trams still get stuck in long lines of traffic, and clearly there is still not enough attention being paid to livability as we saw lots of American exurb-like sprawl going up around the city. New ring roads, big boxes, drive-thrus, and Los Angeles style mall interchanges. This always brings a tear to my eyes, but who can blame people for wanting things after years of the simpler life. And there is clearly a problem with the roads being overwhelmed by truck traffic as the road to Auschwitz was kind of scary (especially in our little muppet bus). Sure, it’s nice to wish that people would still farm close to town and use horses to pull carts, but when the reality is a new middle class and growing consumerism, then you do need to plan for this and at least accommodate commerce and transportation safely. That’s the Civil Engineer in me talking.
They did just open a new mega-mall over the main train station (Galleria Krakow) and are building a new “high speed” tram line to accompany it, so clearly some of the planners have a clue on TOD. But of course, the biggest ads for the new mall tout the new 1400 space parking garage. Oh yeah, and good luck finding the train station platforms through the mall. (go left between Cinnabon and Benetton I think) Oh, I guess they’ll have to learn the hard way.
The other very odd thing about our neighborhood in Krakow was that there were no restaurants or bars (or even cafes) in the entire square mile to old town, despite a dense population and lots of other businesses, including a big public market. It’s as if the city has put it’s entire cultural and social life within the walls of the old town and left the rest a kind of support structure for the old town. It felt like Disneyland on the inside and backstage lot outside the old moat. The exception to this seemed to be the cool old Jewish quarter of Kazmierz, although only a handful of Jewish people still live there since the tragedies of WWII. This neighborhood is the new hub of hipness as old town has been overrun for good by tourists it seems. 
It also contains the excellent (and undersold) ethnographic museum containing 3 floors of Polish folk culture, including reconstructed rooms from houses of the more common people.
It also contains the excellent (and undersold) ethnographic museum containing 3 floors of Polish folk culture, including reconstructed rooms from houses of the more common people. We love this stuff (as anthropologists) as so much attention seems to given to the legacy of the leaders, monarchs, religions, and very little time devoted to the way society functioned from day to day. Of course, life was hard, but in Poland, there was a flourishing folk arts and crafts movement throughout the countryside from the late 18th century until the mid 20th century.
The ethnographic museum has intricate art, costumes, toys, and even hand-painted rooms from countryside cottages typical to Poland’s pre-industrialized life. What do 20 million dollar crown jewels tell you about society other than the obvious fact that wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few? And jaw-dropping churches are great and show that many people (or slaves) were highly devout. Here in Prague, there is a wall called the “hunger wall” since the King at the time (14th Century) decided that it would be good if peasnats worked on the wall for much needed food to live. Progressive or cruel, I’m still not sure. the Royal Gardens at the Prague Castle were paid for by taxing the Jewish Population in the 16th Century. You get my point.
By the way, there were about 20 people at the ethnographic museum and probably 10 thousand in Wawel Castle. I don’t get it, but we have already seen just a few castles…
But onto Warsaw by train, of course, since there so little time and so much city planning to do.
Tags: Eastern Europe, Poland, Travel, Tag Index
rich.coffin