Japan to Australia via Eastern Europe Part 13 - Day 11 - Easter Sunday in Jan Pawel land (aka Kraków... or is that cracow?)

After having that crappy night sleep the night before no thanks to those Italian backpackers - I wake up early and decide to make use of the free internet at the Lemon Hostel. I'm slowing catching up to where we are at with this holiday on the blog (considering we were without internet for all of Nippon).

Breakfast at the Lemon Hostel was a bit of a "Continental" - bread, cheese, strange nutella stuff and some crazy chocolately coco puff things that Ant adores.

Being Easter Sunday, and being in Poland (home of Jan Pawela II aka John Paul 2 the Pope - Pope Harder) - most things were shut - and Auschwitz (probably the main reason we were in Krakow) was shut on only two days of the year - Easter Sunday being one of them of course. Things weren't looking Milhouse.

Deciding that we will do Auschwitz the next day - we head out to the old town part of Kraków (I can write it properly with this Hungarian keyboard). The old town sqaure of Kraków felt decidedly like the old town square of Prague - only with decent types of market stalls (as opposed to Prague - which was just selling crappy tacky sh++). Ant bought waffles - whilst I bought a Jan Pawel II postcard (one where he looked decidedly old, frail and kind of dead looking) to send back to work. I'm a boss to a Pole (no - not the type you dance around but a polish guy) - so he might kept some cheap kicks out of it or something.

Being Easter Sunday - we decided to check out some of the old cathedrals around town - whilst they were being put to use by the locals. Everything was gorgeous and ye-oldé gothic looking and it was admitedly cool to see all the locals singing and the preacher sounding a bit "Mars Attacks!" in his sermon. Plus we saw a few nuns - so Ant got his "Sister Act/Nuns on the Run/Sound of Music" fix.

There was some odd Russian killing massacre display on show (apparently - the Russians killed heaps of Polish troops after the second world war and tried to blame it on the Nazis as you do) - which I couldn't make a lot of sense out of but Ant (being the Hitler/WW 2 nut) got some kicks out of.

We walked up to Wawel Hill which according to LP is Kraków's biggest drawcard for tourist. There is a big f%%k off castle and a huge cathedral (imagitively titled "Wawel Cathedral") - which, like all churches in town today, was being used for mass (or something). Although everything was officially closed on Easter Sunday - the Cathedral was "sort of open" for mass - but we just wandered in anyway for the hell of it (blasphemy). There was some hot alter boys (who were very legal of age) and I made use of the free WC's facilities in the castle. That is my number one hate of Europe - paying to use dodgy arse toilets that are feral... I remeber one in a Paris bus station - which I managed to do a "helicopter" no 2 maneuver all over the wall... I got my 1 euros worth out of that one...

We slowly wander back into the city and take plenty of kodak moments (I bags not sorting through these photos when we get back - but if I don't - Ant santisises me out of them for his parent's consumption)... We have lunch at a euro kebab / gyro place - but this time it was spicy and had some Polish cabbage in the mix (which admittedly was pretty tasty).

After lunch - Ant tries to locate a museum - but everything (apart from churches and a few restaurants) is closed. These Poles are very religious - most churches are still going well into the afternoon with non-stop Easter Mass or something. I'm sure if a non-food business was open today - someone would throw a brick into the front window.

We head back to the Hostel to blog a bit and book some Budapest accommodation - this time - Ant books us into a "clothes optional" gay guesthouse... looking forward to that one... cough!

We stumble on a Communist Kraków City tour - where you get driven in a "genuine Polish Fiat 125" around the Nowa Huta area of Kraków (eg: big ugly communist buildings). Ant does a bit of investigating on the web and finds out that we can take a tram over to Nova Huta ourselves and experience it without the need to book a $100AUD tour.

We hit the Tram No. 4 and make our way out to Nowa Huta suburb. It seems to be a recurring theme in these Eastern European cities - trams and plenty of them... Nowa Huta feels a hell of a lot different than touristy Old Town Kraków - it is a bit of a communist concrete nightmare - think the Public Housing around Northbourne Avenue in Canberra - and you can pretty much imagine what Nowa Huta is like. Just need to add a few skinheads - and you are pretty much there. Ant mentioned that at least the communists were trying to do something right (eg: give someone a decent apartment to live in) but architecturally - it is just so grungy and brutal. There was even a (dare I say) funky 1970's church - think the circular Canberra Grammar chapel on concrete steroids - and you are probably pretty close in imagining what this place looks like.

It was getting dark (and a tad bit scary with all the skinheads around) - so we picked up the pace and caught a number four tram back to the Old Town. I'm not sure what the deal is in Poland - everyone male under the age of 30 seem to have a number 1 crew cut - neo nazi style... Maybe the Nazis haven't completely left Poland after the war?

I grab Ant and we get off a few stops early at the only 24 hour convenience store open today. We pick up on some supplies (thank gawd for supplies on Easter Sunday in Kraków). The place is a total goldmine - it was wall to wall customers. Forget your pyramid schemes - if you want to make lotsa money - set up a store in Kraków and do Easter trading...

We dump our booties at the hostel and try to get some recommendations on restaurants from LP. One of the recommended restaurants was full - and another one was shut down (I'm blaming LP for that) - and we were starting to get a bit desperate - not wanting everything to shut on Easter Sunday night. We both settle upon a Georgian restaurant (probably not the most common of cuisines). I had a Georgian fried chicken and steak and (you gotta love it) a bad polish cabbage salad. Polish salads are pretty much shredded cabbage or shredded beetroot - very exotic.

Ant wanted to try out a local gay disco called "Kitsch" - thinking that a Gay bar must be open on Easter Sunday in Kraków! We arrive at Kitsch only to find that it has moved to some other place called "Plastic" over the Easter weekend. Plastic happened to be situated in a dark and dingy industrial area (think Hume in Canberra - only more dark) and there was not a soul there when we arrived (apart from one barman). I take a few happy snaps of me dancing on the podium (will be my new myspace profile pic when I get back to Australia) and head to "Club 7" - another gay pub on the other side of town.

Club 7 was an underground bar where you had to buzz in to get in. When the doorbit!h opened to door - he said "what do you want?" - Ant replied "...can we come in...?" (in a very Oliver Twist style) and the doorbit!h relented and let us in. Club 7 was a very depressing bar - with everyone over the age of 48 and bad Tina Turner "Simply the Best" music being played. Ant and I only had one beer each before heading to the "lair" section - where I took another couple of candidate myspace profile pics on a pole (the non polish kind).

Ant convinces me to head back to Plastic on the off-chance that it was a happening place. A thirty minute walk to Plastic later and we discover that the nightclub had grown to a population of 6 people (including the bartender). I do a bit of bad table top dancing - but it ended up being "When Table Top Dancing Goes Wrong" - when I hit my shoulder on the ceiling (which bloody hurt).

We both head back to the hostel (another 30 min walk) feeling sorry for ourselves.... Kraków was not a happening place on Easter Sunday.