The painter/ seller puts up his paintings every single day!

"Fun" fact... Krakow was not destroyed during WWII, apparently they didn't put up a fight when the Germans came so the city didn't have any major damage and Krakowians are very proud that their city is original and not reconstructed (like Warsaw!)

We then headed  to the main plaza  which took my breath away... so beautiful!



Once at the main square we were able to hear the trumpets that are played every hour from one of the towers at the church. There are 4 trumpeters at the top, each on a corner and they each play a tune one after the one. After the trumpeter is done he waves at the people in the plaza and people wave back. These trumpeters have 24 hours shift and for those 24 hours they eat, sleep, and do everything in between at the top of the tower!

We then headed to the only tower that was left from the original town square, a gothic clock tower than now has next to it a giant head sculpture!

The guide showing us what tourist usually do with the sculpture.

From there we kept walking and she took us to a green area where we sat and then told us that we were in front of the palace of bishop where the Pope Jean Paul II opened a window and talked to the youth of Krakow. JPII made it a tradition to go to that window every visit and even Pope Francisco continued the tradition last time he visited Poland.

Window where the Pope used to open and talk to Krakowians

All around Poland you can find many many statues of JPII, this one is from the inside of the palace of bishop.

Krakow University building

The tour ended by visiting Wawel Hill, with its Castle and beautiful Cathedral! 
Apparently Wawel was pretty damaged and in order to reconstruct and restore many countries chipped in and donated money for it, now you can read plaques with donors names.

The Castle

It was in Wawel that the guide told us the story of why dragons are famous in Krakow and can be seen pretty much all around town! Look. the pipes look like dragons!







My favorite part was walking through the garden and unfortunately we were too late to visit the church.

I found another Pope statue

Saw a bunch of wedding shoots!

The Wawel Dragon!

Stroll by the river near Wawel hill.

I spent most of my time walking around the main square, lots of the time under water, taking in the views and enjoying its vibe. I do not know if I was there on some special days or if that's how Krakow rolls but every day there were tons of performances all over the square, wether it was people on ropes dancing and hanging from the clock tower, or simply putting on a choreograph danced performance, they kept me well entertained!

Dragons, dragons, dragons!

 At night the square looked even more beautiful!










The free walking tours in Krakow were so good that I decided to go for another one, this time I did the war tour which was filled of tons of stories about WWII and how it impacted the city.

The guide (a historian, he mentioned it about 100 times) took us to some pretty meaningful and interesting buildings and had so much to tell us about the people who lived there, some of them Germans, some of them trying to help Jewish people.

The tour ended by visiting the building where the Gestapo head quarters used to be and told us about how people were interrogated, tortured, and imprisoned in that place... so super sad!

Walking to Gestapo building!

Prisoners banner for the museum.

An actual cell

Writing from inmates

"The only witnesses to the tears shed and the goings-on in here are these four walls and good Jesus"

I ended my fourth day in Krakow by going to Kazimierz, the former Jewish district for a free walking tour. Before the tour I went to check out the "street art" but I didn't find all that much and the ones I found were not all that great.

Cute little ceramics

The tour started in Kazimiers, former Jewish center of Krakow,  with a brief history lesson about the Jewish community in Krakow.  Before WWII the Polish population was 10% Jewish, in Krakow out of  65,000 Jews who lived there only 8,000 survived! Out of those 1000 were saved by Schindler, 2000 were hidden, and 1000 had fake ids... shocking to think that 57 THOUSAND people from ONE city were killed by the Germans... in only TWO years! so crazy!
Nowadays the Jewish quarter of Krakow only has 200 Jews living there! So sad to hear how low that number is!

In the Jewish quarter there used to be 7 synagogues, now only 4 are active and during the tour we saw 3 of them and entered one.



The one we entered was a 17th century one and our guide shared about the history and the events that happened there.



Now the Jewish quarter is no longer the Jewish quarter, it does have the synagogues and a couple of Jews around but the whole area is full of hip cafes and restaurants, many of them serving Israeli food and doing their best to probably preserve a little of the Jewish it had.

The one stand I saw selling souvenirs

We then stopped by the JCC and heard all about their efforts to teach Judaism and get the Jewish community active. They even teach Yiddish for free to the kids.

From Kazimierz we crossed the bridge to the Jewish ghetto, where thousands of Polish Jews had to be relocated inside the ghetto walls.
The bridge now has a beautiful installation of sculptures called "between water and the sky" and depicts some acrobat looking people balancing on the thin wires of the bridge.




Our next stop was at a square called "Heroes of the ghetto" where there are 65 chairs made of steel facing the train station where Jews were sent to be deported to concentration camps. Two of the chairs are not facing the train station, one faces the direction of Schindler's factory where one thousand Jews were kept saved and survived and the other one is facing towards the place where kids were assassinated. The chairs are usually plain looking but when I was there somebody had covered them with beautiful knitted covers with flowers.









The one stop before the last of the tour was at the ghetto wall, which creepily looked like tombstone. I think it was made this way to send the message that people were living inside a cemetery and were bound to die... so sad!

Piece of the ghetto wall

 The tour finally ended by the doors of the Schindler factory but sadly by the time we got there it was closed and my four days in Krakow were not enough to go check it out... One more reason to go back!




Food, food, food, and more food!
Polish food is amazing! I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner out every day and everything was delicious. I had some recommendations from my friend Sophia and some from the free walking tour and I can say that (almost) everything was delicious! Also, it was very easy to find vegetarian food anywhere I went.

Fell in love with potato pancakes! Not very healthy but very delicious!

Zucchini Pancakes, pierogi, and compote at Kuchnia u Doroty

Potato pancakes at Marchewka z Groszkiem

Gotta love pierogis, the Polish dumplings:

Pierogi corner shop... Przystanek Pierogarnia

Traditional beetroot soup and mixed plate of pierogi... yum

 In the jewish quarter there is a plaza where they sell Zapiekanki, a half baguette with cheese and mushrooms, and its very famous, literally everybody in the square is eating one.

Everybody eating zapiekanki... and wearing blue!

The guide recommended Endzior!

Polish donut?

YES PLEASE!

How about ice cream?!?!

I'll have that too!