Krakow Evenings
Krakow Evenings
As I described in the story about Prague, in order to save a vacation, we decided to try the work and travel mode. After recreating my company's test environment on my laptop, I was fully prepared to work remotely. The only catch is that we fly without luggage, and wizzair only allows you to carry one piece of small hand luggage for free. The bag with the laptop obviously did not fit with our two backpacks. At the airport, it was necessary to go through two instances without lighting up the bag with the laptop, otherwise the surcharge would have been more expensive than the tickets themselves, which cost 375 UAH per person one way. Luckily, just now we watched a film about magicians “Illusion of Deception 2”. It was a real magical debut! At what point to turn which side to whom. Sitting on a plane with a laptop, joy knew no bounds! Now it’s up to the small, to quickly fly to Poland and have time to go online by the beginning of the working day. Yes, there was a problem, not only did the plane take off half an hour later, we also miscalculated with the time change. We settled with friends, at the visa control I showed a piece of paper on which I printed the address and phone number of our friends. The officer noticed that this was not a hotel reservation, we agreed with him one hundred percent and he let us through. Here an important point was played by the fact that this was not the first entry under a multivisa, otherwise I would have had to book a hotel, probably. Then it was necessary to get from Katowice to Krakow. The prices for minibuses were more expensive than those offered on the plane, but Dasha bargained. In Minibus Wi-Fi and voila, I'm online!
It was necessary to go far from the bus station and we had clear instructions on which bus. From a local driver, we received a clear Polish response to the topic, “where is the stop for our bus” - “Liquidated! ”. The bus has been canceled, the taxi driver refuses to take the meter, the fares of which are written on the banner on his car. The second taxi driver was caught less greyhound. As a result, we arrived for 200 UAH instead of 325 as the previous taxi driver wanted without a meter. Settled! Working weekdays continued, but evenings! Evenings in Krakow! Since the shift was an hour ahead, we automatically added an hour to our free evening. Working remotely turned out to be easier than I imagined. Now the number of trips in the fifth season can be even more done! During the day I am an office worker, in the evening I am a traveler! Dasha had a full vacation, so Dasha discovered Krakow for herself twice as actively.
Experiencing the old town
First, our friend Sasha gave us a tour around the suburbs of Krakow, taking us along the rivers, real Krakow nettles and other thickets. When we were finally imbued with Polish nature, he put us on a bus to the center. There was a fare dilemma on the bus. The fare is paid in vending machines, which are of different types and, accordingly, require a different type of payment. Some accept coins and cards, others only cards. We just got the other one. We were powerless with the zhmenkoy prepared trifles. The only way to pay was that the bus did not accept the card because I forgot my pin code. When I remembered the pin code on the return bus, I still didn’t get any profit because the bank blocked the transactions. In Kyiv, I already found out that Poland is at risk and some types of card transactions are prohibited by default. As a result, the problem often had to be solved by asking other passengers to pay for us, and then we gave them back in change. Not everything was transparent with the types of tickets either, you had to buy by the minute for 20.40 or 90 minutes. And if you buy for 20, and the bus gets into a traffic jam - your problems. It took us 15 minutes to get to the center.
In general, every trip on the bus was an art. But at each stop there is a timetable. Moreover, if you are late somewhere, then the buses, sensing your fear, are deliberately late in relation to the schedule.
Having reached the city center, we began our acquaintance with the Krakow plantations. This is a long park, laid out on the site of the former walls of the old city. Planty is green and always happy to hide tourists in their groves. The old city is somewhat similar to Lviv and other European cities, but nevertheless, it has something that makes you want to come back and come back here. It's all about the central square and the festivities of people. From time to time whole concerts of street musicians were organized. This is not the first time we have noticed that street orchestras perform classical works much more interesting than at concerts in the Kiev Philharmonic.
We had an acquaintance with Polish cuisine in one of the food courts. Liked the kitchen as always. Somehow it got quite dark. As it was the first of many evenings, we wandered around without much of a plan. We looked at the night castle and went down for a walk along the Vistula River. Huge balloons were just taking off on the other side. We walked completely until dark.
In the morning Dasha woke me up and said that in 5 minutes the working day starts. Of course, it’s interesting to work remotely, I woke up, brushed my teeth, and you are at work. It could be written off that you don’t have to travel by transport and you can sleep longer, but it wasn’t there, the time zone was shifted in the morning not in our favor. We dedicated this evening and the weekend to Prague.
I woke up from the fact that the bright sun was shining directly on our seats with Dasha. There were some fields around, our night bus raced at full speed back to Krakow. The tablet is already completely discharged, because before going to bed I decided to review the film The Grand Budapest Hotel. There was a socket next to each seat. It is very convenient when you are not worried about charging the device on which GPS and maps are on the road. I was turned off again. The next time I woke up, the bus was approaching the bus stop. The sun no longer smelled, gray clouds seemed to emphasize the gray working days. We got on the bus to the "hut" and back to work. The week that I set aside for myself for remote work turned out to be full of rallies. Sasha and Olya had an independent opinion that my job consisted of endless conversations with someone from the office. And at first Sasha said it, and after 10 minutes Olya, who returned from the street, repeated it. It was a little strange to participate all day in meetings when you are 850 km from the collection point. But modern technology works wonders. It's a pity there was no holographic camera, but maybe for the better. And again the evening!
Salt mines
Some evenings were not enough to fully experience the country, but we tried our best. Without wasting a minute, we got to the railway station and drove to the city of Velichka. There are large underground mines in which salt was mined a bunch of centuries ago. In the evening, the choice of language for excursions was not great. We chose between Polish and nothing else. The choice was obvious. By some miracle, Dasha very easily caught the roots of related words in the language, for me it was like in Chinese. But the bottom line was the same - all is well. We imagined salt mines a little differently, these were more like stone mines, but their size and depth are incredibly huge. It was really impressive. Even there, you could get your own achievement by eating in a restaurant at a depth of 125 meters underground. Which I gladly did. The achievement was marked by one and a half servings of dumplings (in Polish, “pierogi”) with some goodies inside. By the time we got back to Krakow, it was already late, I also sprained my leg while we were running to the train.
Morning. Job. There is also the beauty of working remotely in that you can have lunch without stopping from work, saving yourself an hour of time or, on the contrary, take a nap during lunch, because all you need to do is lean back on the sofa from your laptop. To maintain morale, Sasha also worked from home all week, we had a kind of co-working. Taking a nap during lunch, I almost overslept the rally, it's good that Sasha woke me up. In the meantime, Dasha went on a Free walking tour to the center in the morning. I had a private evening tour from my wife. Dasha told me and showed me the best moments. On this day we visited Krakow Castle.
Again, we are not really chasing architecture, but we liked the castle. At one time, different rulers completed the construction of the chapel inside in different styles, fashionable for their time, as a result, a rather funny complex turned out. Another interesting point is that on the first day they passed a statue of a dragon on the embankment, which, as it turned out, spewed flames every three minutes.
I can't figure out how we got so clear in that gap. But Dasha on a free walk tour saw a flame. We had dinner at the Milky Bar cafe, which is partially supported by the state and has very democratic prices. One difficulty, dishes must be ordered from the menu in Polish and it is not always possible to understand what exactly you will get. Many words and roots intersect with Ukrainian ones, but have completely opposite meanings. Luckily, everything on the menu was edible. I associate the old city of Krakow with a large concert space, even describing a cafe, I immediately remember this music of flutes and cellos from the street. We even bought a music box for dad. Behind the castle is quite an interesting area for walking Kazimierz. This evening we also explored the second coast of Krakow in detail, discovering a beautiful church, many bridges.
And one of the illuminated bridges didn't want to let us go. Attempts to return by GPS to the old city ended with a return to the beginning of the bridge. Moreover, several attempts were made to return to the old city. As a result, we rested on a bench watching the river. It's night again and I need to sleep again.
I was already drawn into the working mode and began to regret that they took only a week into the out-of-office mode. I was really afraid that it would be stressful. Dasha, who returned from the zoo in the afternoon, advertised to me delicious pancakes with cottage cheese, which are sold there. Our evening route just lay through a stop with a zoo. Near the house with fast food there were children's attractions, from time to time inviting with their music. Olya, who speaks Polish, bought pancakes during the day. The saleswoman just understood this language. Didn't find anything on the menu. Pancakes, pancakes, mlintsi, pancakes, suites, in response to all these words, the saleswoman silently looked at us. I already had a fear of not trying these legendary pancakes. For a moment there was silence. One of the rides began to play cowboy music loudly, giving the situation more and more drama. Fortunately, the contact occurred over the word “cottage cheese”. The woman converted it into “Sir” and realized that it was about the “Nalesniki”, which hung in a separate menu on the wall. Oh yes, they were gorgeous and worth all the effort. Our goal was mounds, or rather one of the three, which overlooks the city.
The mountain was somewhere in the forest, our old friend GPS decided everything for us, despite the fact that Google map tried to set it up. Part of the road lay along the zoo enclosures, as a result, they also looked at the animals, and Dasha was the second time. The mound itself did not inspire confidence in the fact that it would offer a panorama of the city, and not the tops of pines. Oddly enough, the panorama with the evening sunset still opened up to us. You look at all this beauty and understand that at two in the morning the return trip to Kyiv will begin, putting an end to our fourth travel season.
Since the tablet showed good grounding in the forests of Poland, we went back another way, additionally admiring the beauty of the forest. From the forest we went to the already night old city. On the central square, the clock was just striking even time and a trumpeter played music from the tower of St. Mary's Church. At the end of the game, he waved to the people below. Having played the melody, he waved and disappeared. But the melody continued again. He played it in turn for all four sides. We were able to be in three of them running around the tower in a circle. It was a beautiful evening, people were relaxing in cafes and wandering along the illuminated streets. We are already very accustomed to Krakow and did not want to fly away. Having bought different Polish cheeses at 23:00 we went to bed. At 09:00 I worked again, but from the office.
Trip Information
Date of travel: 11.08. 2016 - 18.08. 2016
Trip type: Remote work
Duration: 4 full evenings
Visa: Obtained on my own for Portuguese travel
Transport: Wizz air
Hotels: Stayed with friends
Excursions: All by yourself
Trip difficulty: 4/10 (Below average)
