Kraków

The 3 hour trip on the shuttle from Ostrava to Kraków went fairly smoothly.  The shuttle dropped me off at the Galleria mall which sits over the new railway/bus station.  I went to the mall to find an ATM to get some Polish currency (Zloty).  The U.S. Dollar is very strong now & the exchange rate is 3.75 Zloty to 1 USD.  It was an easy 15 minute walk to the apartment where I was staying for the next 2 nights.  I met the apartment owner to get my keys.  The apartment is well located & close to all the sights.  The weather was chilly for my first 2 days, it was in the mid 50s & windy at times.

I found a good place that served Polish food that was close to the main square & only spent $7 for a dinner with a soft drink.  I walked around the main square which is one of biggest in Europe.  They had some musicians, street performers, & lots of women trying to get you to visit a "gentlemens club".  

Stay away from the women with the blue umbrellas, see the link below.

http://www.local-life.com/krakow/news/1658-Fraudulent_Night_Club_Chain_Under_Scrutiny

On my first full day in Kraków, I made a visit to Aushwitz.  It is about 1 hour 20 minutes by bus from Kraków.  I knew it wasn't going to be a fun visit, but it was something that was important to see.  I checked online & all of the guided tours in English were already filled & a local guide was $30-$40, but if you get there before 10:00 am you can do a self tour at no charge.  I got on a bus just before 8:00 am & arrived around 9:30 am, still lots of people there at that time including large groups of kids.  Almost all of the signs & exhibits were translated into English, which was helpful since I didn't have a guide.  There were obviously absolutely horrific & gruesome things done there, so there is not much more I can say about it.  It was a long trip as I didn't return until 4:00 pm.  Here are a few photos from my visit.

The next morning I had to check out of the apartment & check into the Park Inn hotel for another free 2 night stay.  The hotel is located right next to a tram stop & the river.  I was upgraded to their best room which was a junior suite on the 4th floor with great views of the river.  

I visited a famous salt mine after checking into the hotel, it is a 20 minute train ride from Kraków.  The mine started 700 years ago & at one time it contributed 1/3 of the revenue for the Polish economy.  It was a very long walk down about 300 steps to get to the main level of the mine.  There were quite a few interesting exhibits on the history of the mine plus a church where all of sculptures were carved from salt.  It was nice visit & an easy day trip since they had trains leaving every 30 minutes.

There was a bike path along the river near the hotel, so I got in a few 5 mile runs along it.  My last day in Kraków, I visited Wawel castle, the Old Jewish Quarter, & the main square.  I also tried some Polish fast food, something called Zapiekanka which is similar to a French bread pizza & also tried something that looks like a pretzel, but tastes like a bagel. 

In the evening of my last night in Kraków, there was a large fireworks show along the river.  I watched some of it on the bridge nearby & some of it from my hotel room.  In the morning, I take the Polskibus for 3 hours to a city called Wroclaw in eastern Poland for a 1 night visit.  

Here are some more photos from visit to Kraków.  It is definitely a place I could see myself visiting again.

The next Vanilla Ice

Ostrava

My day started early as my Student Agency bus from Cesky Krumlov to Prague left at 7:00 am.  I think the Asian tourists were still asleep because it was mostly locals going to Prague, the 3 hour ride went by quickly as I watched a movie most of the time.  The same homeless guy from yesterday was waiting for my return to Prague.  I didn't have time to chat with him since I had to take the subway to the train station. 

 After a 15 minute trip on the subway,  I was at the train station with an hour to get lunch.  The train from Prague to Ostrava was also owned by Student Agency under the name Regiojet.  The fare was cheap, $12 for a 3.5 hour trip.  I had paid $3 extra for a nicer train compartment with large leather seats.  

The trip was fine, not much scenery, just the Czech countryside & small towns.  I arrived in Ostrava & took a public bus to the hotel, the bus dropped me off almost right in front of the Park Inn Ostrava.  This is primarily a business hotel next to an office park, so it was a 20 minute walk to town.  No suite upgrade for me here, but the standard room was fine.

After a long travel day, I decided to do a 6 mile run to get in some exercise.  I had to run about 1.25 miles to get to a park downtown along the river.  It was funny passing other runners & they all had jackets or long sleeves with tights on even though it was in the mid 50s.  After I got back, I had a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant since there was nothing else close by.  

The next morning I did a run on the treadmill & made the twenty minute walk downtown to have lunch at a restaurant that served Czech food. It was pretty good, after lunch I walked around the area with some bars & some casinos.  Saw an interesting advertisement on my walk to downtown, turns out it is for a payday loan place called day to day.  Not much else to do, but kill a few hours before the meet at the hotel.

It took a lot of effort to get my ticket (and $60) to the meet.  It is a long story, but the ticket was supposed to arrive in 5 days, but instead took 30 days to arrive, getting there one day before I left for my trip.  The weather forecast was for mid 50s, light wind, & some rain.  I headed down to the stadium around 3:00 pm, it took 30 minutes to get there.  I took some photos of the stadium before getting into the the line for security.

I had my 35mm camera around my neck and had my zoom lens in my bag.  The security guy says something about my camera & then some idiot security guy that spoke English said my camera was "too large" to take in & only mobile phones or small cameras were ok.  I never heard such BS, I have taken this same type of camera to track meets since the 1980s in addition to the Olympics, World Series, Final Four basketball, etc without any problems.  After 5 minutes of arguing with these jerks, I am forced to check my bag with $1,000 in camera equipment hoping it didn't get stolen or broken.  I was even more angry when after walking around I saw at least 15 people with the same camera that I had. They did have a lot of cool food stands inside & it was fairly inexpensive.

My seats were in the main grandstand about 3 rows up near the 100 meter start line.  The stands are covered, so I didn't even notice that the rain had started after I got to my seat.  The crowd was pretty enthusiastic & the stadium was full, it holds about 15,000 people.  There were some good races & some upsets in a few events.  David Rudisha, the Olympic champion pulled his hamstring in the 600m & Usain Bolt was really slow getting out of the starting blocks after the starter called them up twice before finally starting the race.  His time of 20.13 was really slow, but probably ok for the conditions & lack of competition.  I did manage to get my camera back in one piece after the meet. The whole camera thing still seems wacky to me, will probably email someone at the meet to complain.  

I head to Kraków late tomorrow morning on a small shuttle bus.  There are no train connections from Ostrava to Kraków, but cost of the shuttle is reasonable ($22).

Here a few more photos from the meet, obviously not from me except for the last one taken from my iPad.

View from my seat.