From Paris to Krakow, we took flew there, with a layover in Frankfurt. It wasn't super horrible, except that I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before. Once we arrived in Krakow, we breifly visited Wawel Castle, which had a gorgoeus garden. Then we able to go shopping at the Market Square and it was so awesome. Everything was so mucIh cheaper there, but of such high quality. One of the "specialties" of the market is amber. Much of the world's amber comes from around the area and it was everywhere we shopped. One of the vendors told me that they got their amber from a quarry about 200km (about 125 mi) away. I was able to get beautiful handcrafted amber earrings for the equivalent of about $10 USD. They also had beautiful handpainted & handcarved wooden boxes for really cheap too. I purchased a majority of my gifts there.
After shopping, a friend and I visited one of my favorite churches of the trip. It was an incredible Franciscan Church very close to the Market Square. I had read about if beforehand on TripAdvisor and heard it was beautiful, so I really wanted to see it. The stained glass was insane. It was pretty dark in there, so the stained glass really glowed. There were also gorgeous murals/paintings on the walls (frescoes). The church was still clearly being used though--I saw people praying and using the confessional--so out of respect I didn't take very many photos. The church had a rich history as well. It was built in 1237 by the Franciscans and went through many renovations. It was one of the very first brick & sandstone buildings in Krakow. At one point, after a period of foreign invasions, it was one of only 8 Franciscan monasteries in Poland (from a previous number of over 90).
Our next day in Krakow began with a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter & Ghetto. We saw a lot of locations that were used in the filming of Schindler's List. It was crazy though how many Jews used to live in Krakow before the war and now they barely have enough to run a synagogue service. After that tour, we drove out to Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was a pretty numbing experience for me. I didn't take any picture though, out of respect for how sacred the sights were. They place felt so heavy. We saw horrible places...standing cells, starvation cells, suffocation cells, gas chambers, crematories...it was too much. There was so much evidence of pain, suffering, death, and murder. It was a really tough ending to the day. Overall though, Krakow was one of my favorite cities.
Our next day in Krakow began with a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter & Ghetto. We saw a lot of locations that were used in the filming of Schindler's List. It was crazy though how many Jews used to live in Krakow before the war and now they barely have enough to run a synagogue service. After that tour, we drove out to Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was a pretty numbing experience for me. I didn't take any picture though, out of respect for how sacred the sights were. They place felt so heavy. We saw horrible places...standing cells, starvation cells, suffocation cells, gas chambers, crematories...it was too much. There was so much evidence of pain, suffering, death, and murder. It was a really tough ending to the day. Overall though, Krakow was one of my favorite cities.