Dragon bones, yes not just ordinary old dragon bones but ones that protect a city. In Krakow, which is a beautiful old city, at the Wawel castle just outside the cathedral, there hang dragon bones. According to a legend there was this guy who slew the dragon (ok so I don't remember all the details, might have been the Polish vodka) and for some unknown reason he stuck the bones outside the cathedral making some sort of promise about saving the city always (as he had saved it from the dragon). So as you can see from the picture the bones thus hang there (some speculation about them being wooly mamooth, blue whale and some other large beast is irrelevant). They have not been removed for at least a century as the city has not been destroyed in a whole lot of conflicts. The most recent being WWII when the city was left pretty much untouched as compared to many others that were Nazi occupied and flattened by the allies. Beautiful old city, Krakow. Stopped first in Katowice and took a trip to Auschwitz. I have posted a few pictures and one of the memorial plaques here. It was a difficult experience. In Krakow a tour of an old salt mine which is a Unesco heritage site was in order. I thought since I once worked in a salt mine (here no company names are mentioned, you know who you are!) that a trip to go visit another would be in order. This is an interesting place. First you walk down 350 steps to the first level. You wander about 2km through part of the old mine. They have been salt mining here for about 400 years. There are sculptures carved out of salt as well as a church chapel where mass is held Sundays (see the picture of the last supper and the old pope (who was Polish) all carved out of salt). This as well as coal made up a good part of Polands economy. According to our guide the term salary comes from the word salt. In olden times people were paid in salt as it was a valuable commodity. So, your daily salt portion was how you got paid. So how much SALT you were paid was your SALTERY. Get it? Warsaw has a nice Old Town as well, though not as nice as Krakow as Warsaw had not dragon bones to protect it so it got levelled in WWII. However they built old town based on photos and documents so the old part looks like it used to before the war. So about Polish efficiency, well there is none. At the Warsaw Uprising Museum (which is a HUGE piece of Polish heritage and pride) you buy your ticket and go in the front door. Did I mention this small door is also the exit? You now find yourself in a museum with numbers (I think they were in some sort of order but it was not historical or numerical) and there are arrows that say "tour this way". Unfortunately the arrows tend to point in three or four different directions. Some of these lead to dead ends but you don't know that until you follow that arrow. Get the point? I was in awe just how disorganized people like this could actually stage a huge uprising against the Nazis. The coffee shops have lots of staff but it would appear that maybe only 10% actually know how to make a cup of coffee. Good thing that Poland is very inexpensive as it got a little frustrating. Welcome to Poland, don't expect anything done quickly or efficiently. If you are looking for that, try Germany.
PS: Stopped in Vienna on the way from Venice to Poland. Managed to catch a night of the Vienna international film (and food) festival, very neat.
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