Krakow, Poland: Stress, Filipino Girls, Fake Silk and Old Friends
This is me standing in Krakow's medieval Main Market Square in front of St. Mary's Church where once upon a time a young priest named Karol Wojtyla (later known as Pope John Paul II) held mass. Upon first glance Krakow's Main Market Square appears strikingly similar to Prague's Old Town Square except here the square is larger and, more importantly, the people of Krakow still use it. In Prague the square has been basically been overrun by tourists and the locals avoid it at all costs, except to work at one of the restaurants or pickpocket naive foreigners (more on that later). Here, the square is alive 24 hours a day with music, people selling handmade crafts, political rallies, the scent of meat on the grill and kids heading off to one of the zillion bars for a drunken good time. It's a lot of fun. And it's finally fun for us now, two days after we arrived...
Catastrophe struck the night we were leaving Prague to come here. Two hours before we were to catch our train to Poland my brother had his wallet stolen on the Metro while we were on our way back to check out of our apartment there. We had intended to spend our last hour there drinking coffee and people watching when my brother became grumpy after being given a bad Americano and it started pouring down rain. Frazzled, he got up and started running from the square to the Staromeska Metro Station and we jumped on a super crowded Metro car. He had put his wallet in the front pocket of his backpack and momentarily let down his guard and before he knew it, the wallet (and all of his credit cards, ATM cards, driver's license and social security card) was gone.
Luckily our host Bob, an American expatriate who owned the apartment we stayed in, was extremely helpful and assisted my brother in contacting the US. My brother had all of his accounts closed within an hour of the theft. Afterwards, Bob called up a young Slovak guy named Ludovik (apparently one of a stable of young men who "work" for Bob) to come and take us to the Train Station.
Ludo was a trip. 23, tall and handsome with slick combed-back dirty blonde hair and big blue eyes, he had amateur gay porn sex appeal to spare. When he arrived, Bob gave him instructions to take us to the Train Station, park the car and help us onto the platform while gently caressing his cheek.
In the car, Ludo chatted with us about Prague, the rest of our trip and so on when all of a sudden he guessed correctly that we are Filipino (almost no one does this- at least not in my case). "I worked for a Filipino guy one time, he was very nice to me," Ludo stated, totally deadpan. "This year for my birthday he gave me very good present- a Filipino girl. Filipino girls have very small pussies." My brother and I started laughing. "No, no, seriously!" Ludo replied. "One time I fuck a Thai girl and my dick not function for next seven days." He paused. "Well, it work but not as good after, you know?"
Ludo, however, was far less forthcoming when we asked him how he met Bob. "I met Bob at gay hotel," he answered. And that was that.
When we got to the train station, my brother was, understandably, a total wreck. At one point he thought he had lost our tickets and started frantically rifling through his file of papers related to our trip, yelling "oh shit, fuck, fuck, shit!" Ludo looked over at me and said, "Maybe you stay in Prague some more days, no?" Finally my brother found the tickets in his backpack behind a couple of books (including The Best of Eastern Europe by Rick Steves), magazines and smooshed croissants. Tickets secured, Ludo led us to the platform where we were to catch the train- Platform 6, which he had a catchy way of remembering. "Six, sex, six, sex," he hummed cheerfully.
God bless Ludo. He literally saved our lives.
Neither of us slept very well on the train and the first 24 hours here in Krakow my brother was a little tense. Turns out, the thief managed to drain his bank accounts in the 30 minutes or so before he was able to close his bank accounts stealing thousands of dollars. The first day and a half we spent a lot of time sitting around different outdoor cafes in Market Square drinking beer and wine so my brother could calm his nerves. During this time, my brother realized he may have left his Social Security card in his wallet and began to worry about identity theft. Thus we also spent hours at the Internet Cafe so he could call his banks in America and check his accounts online.
Compared to Bob's neat, clean, bright and airy apartment we rented in Prague, the apartment here in Krakow leaves a lot to be desired. The walls are alternately candy-apple red with grey linoleum floors or tan with orange carpet. The sheets and pillowcases are made of this weird, fake silk material which is really tacky and the place has this musky aroma of decay. The owner even left out a couple of really nasty porn magazines next to the bed in an attempt, I suppose, to make us feel more comfortable. After checking in, paying the owner 720 Polish Zloty for four days and receiving the one set of keys for the two of us (the keys that bind us together 24/7 here in Poland), my brother looked around, took a whiff and said, "Barf." A few hours later I heard a scream from the other room. Rushing out to investigate, I found my brother holding a glass in his hand. "Ace, here, smell this!" he shouted and stuck the cup in my face. It literally smelled like a sweaty armpit.
My brother reacts to our apartment
Despite the stress of my brother's stolen wallet and the dinginess of our living situation, we've fallen completely in love with Krakow. It's small enough so that you can walk to everything you want to see but big enough to still feel lively, urban and hip. Something is always happening in the Square, which literally is the beating heart of the city. In one day on the Square we saw a group of young actors making performance art
,
a Polish rock concert, a group of teenagers breakdancing and a Hungarian choir, sometimes all happening at the same time. We've also fallen in love with Polish men who range in attractiveness from sexy to really sexy (in fact, when a hot guy walks by I alert my brother by saying "Polska Kielbasa" which, I know, is really inappropriate).
One of the most random (and nicest) things that happened here in Krakow is that I was able to meet up with one of my best friends back home Sylvia Slawinski, who happens to be visiting her family at the same time we're here. Sylvia and I first met working at KFC when we were in high school and have been friends for almost 13 years. Recently, she married a guy named Kurt and 8 months ago they had their daughter Grace. Because our lives are so busy now and they have moved to Puyallup, Sylvia and I barely get a chance to see each other back home. So we both felt it ironic that we ended up seeing each other for the first time in 6 months in Poland even though we only live an hour apart. With Kurt desperate to go bar hopping we ended up drinking A LOT of Polish beer last night and had a great time.
My brother Ben, Me, Sylvia, Kurt and Sylvia's brother Mark at Coyote Bar in Krakow
Today my brother and I went to Auschwitz which was amazing. I was going to add my impressions of Auschwitz here but I feel like I still need some time to reflect on what I saw. I will definitely post the pictures I took at the Camp soon, if not tomorrow.
We only have one more day left in Krakow which does not seem like enough time. We have yet to see the Castle, take the Royal Walk or visit the former Jewish district of Kazimierz (former due to Auschwitz, of course). We're going to try and see these places tomorrow which is pretty ambitious but our train doesn't leave until nearly 11pm tomorrow night so there might be time. Then it's off to Budapest.