Zakopane and Czarny Dunajec

We arrived in Zakopane today and are leaving tomorrow—which is a real shame, because the weather is terrible!  Zakopane is full of tourists and hikers in the summer (skiers in the winter) who all come to this overgrown village to enjoy the beautiful scenery and paths in the Tatra Mountains.  If you hike or take the cable car up to Kasprowy Wierch, it’s supposed to look like this:

We did it today (because, why not?) and it looked like this:

The amazing thing is, we weren’t the only ones up there!  There were families, school groups, couples, individuals … some of them had probably hiked up, but others took the cable car with us.  (More pictures of Kasprowy Wierch here, FWIW.)

There is plenty to see and do in Zakopane for one and a half days, so we have been keeping ourselves busy.  There’s an old wooden church (so now we’ve been in churches made of brick, stone, salt, and wood) with an incredible cemetery.  The grave markers are carved and constructed creatively, and the plots are often gardens of wildflowers. 

"Pizzeria Hanka" ... no pizza.

On our first day, we stopped into a restaurant that described itself as a “Pizzeria” and discovered there was no pizza.   (The only language I had in common with the woman waiting on us was German … so you can guess how well that went.)

The nice cheese lady who let us try everything first.

Later, we bought some of the smoked cheese formed into pretty shapes that’s sold from little carts everywhere.  We also happened to be in front of a church when we heard the tinkling of bells, then soft singing—and then we saw a procession emerge from the doors and continue around the church before going back in.  The town is full of kitchy souvenir stands and restaurants, capitalizing on the distinctive highlander style.  Everyone is friendly and in a good mood, though, and the streets are thronging with visitors, so there’s a good vibe.

(More pictures of Zakopane here.)

One of my goals for this trip was to make it to Czarny Dunajec, where my great grandparents on my dad’s side are both from.  It’s completely off the tourist route, but it’s just a short bus ride from here, so using a lot of expressive gestures, we got ourselves onto a bus and over to Czarny Dunajec.  We passed thru some very picturesque villages, where almost all the houses are still carved in the highlander style.  But Czarny Dunajec is more of a town.  We didn’t do much except walk around a bit, try to find a cemetery with “Kois” on the gravestones (no luck), and then get ourselves a pizza (at last!), but the fact that we got there and back with no mishaps felt like a success.  (More pictures of Czarny Dunajec here.)

Czarny Dunajec with the mountains in the background.

It’s amazing how many little things are a matter of convention—and therefore, potential sources of confusion.  Like realizing that there’s no organized bus service, just a lot of vans with their destinations in the window.  Or like walking into a restaurant and not knowing whether to sit down or order at the little bar (the latter)—and do we pay now or later (now)?   I can point to myself and say “English” in Polish … but if they shake their heads … well, we do our best!  Fortunately, “Coca-Cola Lite” (Emma’s default drink) is the same everywhere we’ve travelled.

Salt Mines / Kazimierz / Dunajec Castle / River Ride

On the train again, this time a very slow one from Krakow to Zakopane.  The scenic route.  Good time to catch up on a few notes telling you where we’ve been.

The day before yesterday, we went first to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a vast underground salt mine 700 years old.  When salt was worth about half its weight in gold, this was the source of Krakow’s wealth.  In addition to excavation chambers and passageways, there are sculptures and dioramas carved in salt, many of them religious.  The most impressive room is St. Kinga’s chapel, which includes chandeliers, sculptures, and floor tiles carved from salt and polished to a shine.  (Including, as one tour guide intoned, the only sculpture of Pope John Paul II carved in salt.  I giggled when I heard this—which got me a nasty stare from one gentleman.  But honestly, where else are they going to be making statues carved in salt?)  Wielizcka was one of the first monuments put on Unesco’s list.

(more pictures here)

Diorama showing the dwarves working in the salt mine when they discovered the egg from which the Krakow dragon was hatched.  Honest, that's what our guide said.

Emma in St. Kinga's Chapel

After returning to Krakow, we got some lunch at Momo Café (vegan!) and walked around the former Jewish district in Kazimierz.  This was originally a town outside of Krakow and had both Christian and Jewish sections, but now it’s just a neighborhood.  Since Schindler’s List, there’s been quite a bit of tourism, which some people regard as exploitation and others regard as tribute. We arrived during the Jewish Cultural Festival, but we didn’t experience much of it except a little bit of klezmer music in the background.  We did visit the Remuh Synagogue and the Remuh Cemetery, right next to it.

(more pictures here)

And we saw our friends the Warstadts!

In the evening, we saw this very cool exhibit about what they’ve found during archeological excavations on the main square in Krakow.  We went down under the Cloth Hall and could see paving stones and artefacts from centuries ago … along with some really cool multimedia exhibits.

Yesterday was a bit of a mixed bag.  We drove to Dunajec Castle in Niedzica, which has an interesting Peruvian connection.  The castle definitely has a Dracula feel to it, and although it’s very old, it’s not in ruins.  There were some interesting rooms all fitted up as they would have been in previous centuries, and great views of the countryside.

(more pictures here)

And then to our river rafting trip on the Dunajec River.  This is a very popular tourist attraction, and the rafts are of a traditional sort, with greenery tied in the front and the boatmen using long poles to guide us downstream.  The scenery as we wound our way through the mountains was spectacular, and although we occasionally hit a bit of white water, it was mostly placid.   It would have been a lovely way to spend a sunny, warm day.  Unfortunately, it was raining.  Sometimes only a bit of a drizzle, but sometimes a true downpour.  Emma and I both discovered that our raincoats weren’t as waterproof as we thought … Fortunately, it wasn’t too cold.  But it felt SO good to get back into our driver’s car when we were done!

Our guide, who told delightfully amusing stories about the scenery that we couldn't understand because we don't speak Polish.

We met Adriana and her family ... and saw much more of the wonderful area they live in

On Saturday, we finally got to meet our cousins on the Wydra side, the Kolmajer family.  Adriana has been helping me plan the trip for months--this is the young woman who has been helping my Uncle Ron with our family tree.  Adriana's great-grandfather and my great-grandfather were brothers.  One part of the family left for America and most contact was severed--but Adriana decided to find her long lost relatives and she found us, at least!

Adriana along with her parents, Jurek and Danuta, invited us to their home in Trzebinia, where we had a wonderful feast, surrounded by friends and family.  There were lots of questions, but since most of it had to go through the translation services of either Adriana or one of her friends, most of our communication was through smiles and laughter--and eating.  Lots of eating!  First there were some lovely desserts (Polish strawberries are yummy!), and then the meal proper started.  About ten different salads, with fresh vegetables and eggs.  Then sausages for most of us and some grilled vegetables for Emma--she is the first vegetarian any of them had met, so they got the recipes off the internet.  And finally a wonder dish with potatoes and kielbasa.  And did I mention the vodka?  Ladies drink it mixed with fruit juice, which serves to hide the alcohol content, I think ...
(more pictures here)

Danuta, Patrick, Emma, Jurek, Denise, Adriana

The next day, Adriana and Arek took us around to some important local sites.  First, we visited Auschwitz.  After that, we drove to visit a very impressive palace, Pszczyna Castle, from the 19th-century.
(More pictures here)

They made us wear slippers ...

Adriana, Denise, Emma

And then, to see the other end of the castle spectrum ... We went to Ogrodzienieckiego, the ruins of a 13th-century castle built on a limestone outcropping, once the strongest stronghold in the region.  Amazing.  We got feelin' all medieval . . .
(more pictures here)

Castle ruins

Limestone formations

Emma and Denise

Emma

Arek & Adriana

The best part, though, was spending time together ...

Exploring Krakow on our own

After our "3-hour tour," Emma and I had a short list of things we wanted to do in Krakow the next day, plus just wandering the streets of the old town a bit more.

First off was an exhibit of 19th-century Polish painting in the upper floor of the Cloth Hall, on the main square.  Emma got all dressed up for the occasion ...

Emma all dressed up and ready to be part of the exhibition of 19th-century Polish art

There were also lovely views of the square from the top of the cloth hall.  The two uneven towers you see in the background belong to St. Mary's Church, a.k.a. the Mariacki Church.  Actually, the taller one is officially a watch tower.  Every hour on the hour, a bugler plays the hejnal song, which ends abruptly without finishing.  The legend has it that when the Tartars invaded in 1241, the bugler was sounding the alarm when he was shot in the throat with an arrow.

Emma over the main square

The main square (Rynek Glowny), with the uneven towers of the "Mariacki" church

 We also went down to the river, which is where the festivities for the "Wianki" (wreathes) festival were being held.  This is an old pagan festival, which has largely been appropriated by a pop music festival.  But there's also a medieval fair and a generally jolly atmosphere, as people stroll along the Vistula, eating ice cream and wearing the eponymous wreathes.

We've gone from a city of mermaids to a city of dragons ...

Dragons for sale

Making wreathes

Flower-seller in his wreath

Damsels in wreathes

Drinking dragons

We walked back up Grodzka Street, the royal way, taking pictures of churches both elaborate and moody, and we ended back in the main square, where there were puppeteers and bubble blowing.  And all of this was before the REAL party started, when we met our cousins the Kolmajers ... MORE TO FOLLOW.

Baroque church

Church spire

Sign of the "lion" over a medieval house, Krakow ... Clearly, the artist had never seen a lion

Making bubbles on main square in Krakow

Making bubbles on main square in Krakow

First day in Krakow

First, a picture from last night, when Emma got a very tall "American" ice cream.

Has anyone in America ever had something like this?

************

We are riding on the train from Warsaw to Krakow.  Emma is listening to something, and we’re sharing a very pricey first-class cabin (who knew that you had to reserve a cabin separate from the train ticket?  everyone, I guess …) with a little boy whose parents are sitting in another cabin.  He’s plugged in, too, and watching a movie on his Phillips computer.  His shirt says “Golden Crow” on it but there’s a picture of a lion, along with an “NY” reminiscent of Yankees regalia.  None of the pieces fit—which makes me wonder (again) about what our shirts with Asian characters on them are saying.

(Emma said that she wanted to open an “alternate universe” museum, with things such as the shirts that say “Vancouver Stanley Cup Winners 2011” on them.  Gary pointed out that these things get shipped off to Africa or other such places.  So maybe we get T-shirts that say “Miss Japan/Miss Universe 2011”? 

When walking down the street in Yucay, Peru, I got to practice my “good day” and “good afternoon” with everyone that I met. Not here in Poland.  Eye contact is hardly made between passersby, and apparently walking around with a smile on your face is interpreted as idiocy.  So, the lack of public gregariousness means that the little boy hasn’t tried once to communicate with Emma and me, even though he probably studies English in school.  I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s watching “Harry Potter,” since he called out something that sounded like “reductio!” a while ago.  (Is that used in any of the movies?  Or are my ears just so intent on finding meaning that they make stuff up??)

Poland is very very flat.  At least the midsection is, around Warsaw.  We’re about 45 minutes outside of Krakow and now there are gentle hills, with haystacks and farm houses picturesquely arranged along them.

In the first train cabin that we sat in ... and got kicked out of, when it turned out someone had reserved it.  Oops.  We then crashed another one that needed a reservation--but it turned out OK when we said we'd pay for it.  I was *not* going to try to move my enormous suitcase again.

********

So now we've arrived in Krakow, checked into our hotel, and actually found a vegetarian restaurant for lunch (yay).  I unpacked my enormous suitcase which is unwieldy and much too heavy.  (I think I'm going to have to throw some of my clothes out.)  We then took a walking tour with a fantastic guide named Marta.  We made it to all the standard highlights:  the main square itself, The Basilica of the Assumption, Wawel Castle, Wawel Cathedral, and the oldest parts of the Jagellonian University.  We also talked a lot about the university systems in Poland and in the U.S., which are—not surprisingly—quite different.  She was interested to know that some of my family is from the Podhale and was excited to know that I’d be meeting up with relatives and going to Zakopane.

The churches and castle roomss are incredible, filled with splendid carvings, Flemish tapestries woven with silver and gold, and huge stained glass windows.  (It reminded me again of how rich Europe would be if it weren't for all the wars that end up destroying lives and the beautiful, productive things those people create.)  One room in the castle had a rather bizarre ceiling with about 30 faces carved out of wood looking down at us.  It gave me a bit of a start when I looked up.  Marta said they were characters from folklore (I think). In the late afternoon, we could hear the start of the very loud concerts that will be playing here tonight and tomorrow as part of the “Wianki” festival.  The music itself has little to do with the pagan ritual of setting wreathes afloat on the Vistula River on midsummer’s night … but it might be fun to check out the medieval fair that’s also being held on the river banks.  

Towers on Wawel, as seen when you start to climb the hill.

Inner courtyard of the castle

Wawel

Taking pictures on Wawel Hill

The city's mythical founding involved a dragon--and you can still visit his lair, which is right under Wawel  Hill.  Here's what it looks like ... it's only a model.

The Vistula River

Marta and Emma, Jagellonian University

Oldest building of the Jagellonian University--both date back to the 14th century.