The Wieliczka Salt Mine

Lonely Planet says, ' More than salt ', boasts the advert promoting a visit to the ultra-deep mine on the outskirts of Krakow. However, it is actually nothing more than salt and that is why it is so impressive. It is an eerie underground world of pits and chambers, filled with finely crafted sculptures and bas-reliefs. Everything has been carved from salt by hand. The mine has been registered as a Unesco World Heritage site for more than 30 years.

The tour starts with a giddying descent down 380 wooden stairs to reach a depth of 135m. Every single element here, from chandeliers to altarpieces, is made from salt. It took over 30 years for one man and then his brother to complete the underground chapel in 1895.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine was built back in the 13th century, continuing table salt production right up until 2007, making it one of the world's oldest operating salt mines. Over the nine centuries of salt extraction the mine has transformed into an underground city in which a specific, therapeutic micro-climate has developed. Kilometres of underground corridors with impressive chambers, chapels, and emerald salt lakes hide the secrets and history of the mine.....these are unveiled to you by a local guide, who will tell you how, over the centuries, the mine extracted the white gold - the salt.

The incredible main chamber

The legend of St. Kinga is illustrated by a group of sculptures located in the Janowice Chamber

The Last Supper

This was a fascinating and informative tour and is really worth seeing. One word of advice would be to wear very comfortable shoes. You will walk a long way!

To queue or not to queue

One of the joys of travelling is, in my opinion, finding out about all the small inconsequential, quirky traits and customs that give a country its unique footprint. Those strange and often amusing nuances that we all take for granted in our own countries, come to the fore very quickly when you are suddenly confronted with a new 'set of rules' to abide by.

Let us take a look at queuing for example. We (the Brits) , whether we admit to it or not love a good queue. Whether at the bus stop, the cinema, the bank or indeed anywhere. There is an unwritten rule that one joins the end of the queue, formed in an orderly manner of course, almost Titanicesque in it's women and children first precedent.

8.30 am, outside the Immigration Office, Krakow, Poland, CENTRAL Europe. A queue there certainly is not! The amassed crowds of people, jostling for position to be the first through the doors remind me of mine and hundreds of other supporters' predicament at the Baseball Ground in 1984 when we were trying to exit the ground back to our car park without getting crushed. However this time there are no chairs being hurled at us but there is however an angry confrontation between a Pole and a Ukrainian, as to who should be at the front of the 'queue' . Amanda translated some of the argument to me and it seems one was questioning the other as to the validity of his parentage and suggested that perhaps it would be better if he f.....d off back from where he came from. Ring any bells? When the doors opened, there were a few skirmishes, a bit like Black Friday really but today it was not 'white goods' on offer but far more important white visas.

I'm alright Jack, let's have a nice cup of tea.

Having made it in to the inner sanctum we are immediately put in a queue to get in to the next room where there are five or six staff working in an open plan office and a couple of private booths. A guard at the doorway lets a certain amount of people in as others leave. We eventually get ticket number thirteen and sit and wait and wait and ...wait. What I do notice is that there appears to every nationality under the sun in this room but rather worryingly so, there does not appear to be any obviously Western or Central Europeans by what I can hear in their conversations with their interpreters. A short while later we are duly called to one of the private booths and told that we are in the wrong place and should go upstairs to room 105 ( four less and I would have been there for a while!)

We enter the waiting room to room 105 with a great sense of relief as we can see EU posters on the wall explaining that this is the place for EU citizens to register their application for Polish residency. There are a dozen or so people sat around and more arriving as we take a seat and Amanda asks the room, who is next, as there appears to be no formal queue of any sort. A woman opens the door to the mysterious room 105 and two people leap out of their seats and almost get jammed in the doorway as
they both try to get in. After a few heated words a rather admonished gentleman returns to the room mumbling something or other, whilst others join the conversation, all unsure as to the procedure to get through the hallowed doors of room 105.
A short while later, after a few more rushes on the door, a lady appears and announces in Polish that if there any EU citizens wishing to register then please come forward. There is a queue after all, but only for EU citizens. We are next.

To be honest my registration was quite simple and didn't take that long. However if I was a non EU citizen I would probably be still there now. So there we are. There was a queue and it was inextricably linked to being a Brit!!! I wondered on the way home, how many English speaking EU citizens were still waiting as they didn't understand the lady's announcement in Polish. Anyway I'm alright Jack, let's have a cuppa.

The wonderful Out of Africa cafe. This cafe will feature later in far more detail 

The first weekend

The main square, Rynek Glowny

After our tour of Wawel we stopped in the main square for a few drinks before dinner.  In shirtsleeves, and sat but a stone throws away from the magnificent St. Mary's Basilica and just about next door to the offices of the British Council where I will doing my CELTA ( Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages ) , we watched the sun set over the the Cloth Hall (the building on the left in the background)

We had booked a table at Pod Aniolami restaurant and this next quoted passage is taken from their own menu...'Restaurant Pod Aniolami - Under the Angels - is an extraordinary place. Some people say there are indeed angels in its Gothic cellars. The restaurant, a laureate of many first class awards and distinctions invites you to original, unforgettable and unique banquets. The place is far-famed for its marinated meats grilled over a beech hardwood fire. The restaurant's historical 13th century interiors and brilliant cuisine based on Polish culinary traditions will enable you to soak up the atmosphere of the Medieval Kings' City of Cracow.

At "Under the Angels", time stood still and one can still find the ambience of old Cracow here. Beautiful interiors and excellent cuisine attract renowned guests from all over the world. ( see photo below)

' Renowned guests!'

The restaurant is located in the 18th century building at the Royal Route, leading to Wawel King's Castle. For over three hundred years the building was the residence of Cracow's goldsmiths who also had their workshops here'.

On my recommendation , as I had eaten here before, Steve, Dave and myself had the herring starter....now, I hear some of you groan at the mention of herring but believe you me this was delicious and so fresh that it was not 'fishy' at all. It was served with a piquant relish of finely chopped onion, gherkins and dill and accompanied by a very , very cold shot of vodka. Even if you are not too keen on herrings, I assure you, you would find this starter absolutely stunning , as we all did.

The service here is exemplary, the ambience spot on,  not being rushed to 'turn' a table is very welcome and the professionalism of the team of young waiters and waitresses was a joy to behold and made me think that if I was to return to the hospitality industry it would have to be in a place such as this.

Pork szaszlyk

Amanda and Steve had the rib eye steak and Dave and I had the pork szaszlyk, which was tender chunks of pork cooked on the aforementioned beech wood fire and served with bacon, baked apple, horseradish and mashed potato. This is not the type of restaurant that many  Krakovians would frequent very often. To be honest,  it is deemed to be quite expensive in Polish terms. However for a special occasion, such as this was it really was exceptional value at just under £20 per head for three starters, four mains, three vodkas, three beers and a soft drink. Five star plus and we will be back.

It was awful!

Wawel Castle

My first few days here were made even more enjoyable by the fact that two of my long standing friends from Plymouth, Steve Rigby and Dave George, came to Krakow for the weekend.

Dave, me and Steve

Here we are on the parapets of Wawel Castle, the former seat of the Polish monarchy, enjoying the unusually warm, late October weather. This next excerpt comes from The Lonely Planet guide describing 'Smok', the Magic Dragon....' 

' Wawel Castle is home to the city's oldest legends, including at least one involving a fire breathing dragon. Long ago, the story goes, during Prince Krak's reign, a nasty dragon lived in the cave below Wawel Hill, terrorising Krakow town. A fire-breathing menace, the scaly Smok ravaged residents and livestock, leaving death and destruction in his wake. His favourite food was beautiful young virgins. Prince Krak feared for the life of his own daughter Wanda, and he offered her hand in marriage to any suitor who could slay the dragon. Many died trying. Finally a poor young cobbler, came up with a scheme to trick the dragon. He stuffed a sheep with sulphur and left the tasty morsel outside the dragon's lair. The dragon fell for it.

The dragon devoured the sheep, then retreated to the Vistula River to quench his unbearable thirst. He drained the river, causing his stomach to swell and inciting a massive explosion. The dragon was defeated!. The cobbler was a hero! The virgins were safe! Wanda and the cobbler lived happily ever after '.

Our weekend was far less dramatic I can assure you. Below is the imposing building of Wawel castle. After Krakow was incorporated into the re-established Poland after World War One, Wawel became a residence of the Polish president. Restoration work was undertaken until the outbreak of World war Two. During the war, Wawel again assumed its historic role as a seat of power, but this time far more reluctantly. Krakow became the capital of German-occupied Poland, with Wawel serving as the residence for Nazi Governor General Hans Frank. After the war, further restoration work began and the complex was transformed into its current function as a museum and repository of national memory.

Wawel Castle

A new life in Krakow

This is the first time that I have ever bought a one way ticket. The implications of this are beginning to sink in. I sit in the unparalleled splendour and comfort of seat 11C on Ryanair  flight FR227 from Bristol to Krakow....yes I am moving to Poland.

That's right, Poland the team that drew 1-1 with England in 1973, thus depriving England of a place at the 1974 World Cup. Tomaszewski's save from an Alan Clarke volley towards the end of the game was unforgettable especially after pundit Brian Clough looked down the lens of the camera in the pre match analysis and in his own inimitable way said ' Put your feet up, make a cup of tea, they've got this clown in goal '. Yes, a clown with very long arms!!

Yes, the country where the Solidarity movement of the early 1980's, gave rise to a broad, non violent, anti- Communist social movement, that, at it's height, claimed some 9.4 million members....this was very soon followed by the dismantling of the communist governmental system and by Poland's transformation into a modern democratic state.

Yes, Poland, the country that has had to suffer some of the most heinous and despicable war crimes in the history of the world. Between 1941 and 1945, the German Nazis established six extermination camps in German-occupied Polish territory - Chelmno, Belzec, Sohibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkinau and Majdanek.

Yes, Poland, the country in CENTRAL Europe....please, please never suggest to a Pole that their country is in Eastern Europe. The historical reasons behind the split between Western and Eastern Europe are the same reasons why Polish people can be offended when Poland is being catagorized as an Eastern European country. Polish people want to cut off from the past and they see themselves much more Western than Eastern. Times of the Cold War are left behind and Poland in the last 30 years has done everything it can to move away from Russian influence.

Reactions to my decision to move to central Europe have varied but generally everyone I know has been very supportive and in some cases even rather envious. I am undertaking something I have wanted to do for many years and that is to teach English as a foreign language. The reason to do this in Krakow is because my partner is Polish and she intends to work in the legal profession here. Dependent on me passing the entrance exam I will undergo a months long intensive course at the British Council in the city centre and then be in a position to work either in a school or on a one to one basis, or indeed both.

My intention is to write about my experiences along the way, whether it be restaurants visited, places of interest explored or simply an observational blog on everyday life here in Krakow. Please feel free to comment accordingly. Any feedback will be gratefully accepted. Thank you.

Na zdrowie!