Restaurants and walking tours - Krakau, Poland
4 Stars This place was Great visited Aug 22, 2005
Krakow was lovely. The hostel was seriously downmarket, true, but the location was good, more or less accross the road from the old jewish area (Kazimerz) and about a 15 minute walk (or 3 stops on the tram) from the centre of the old city. We hadn't realised this. After reconciling ourselves to at least one night in the tip of a hostel, we decided to treat ourselves to a restaurant meal, and decided to see if the guide book recommended one nearby. There appeared to be one practically across the street, listed as a "jewish style" restaurant, and, incredibly, it appeared to be one we could almost afford. We set out to find it, crossing the drab, ill-lit tram-lined street, we turned a corner down a dark alley, and emerged from the end into an amazing cobbled square, lined with bustling restaurants and beautifully lit by warm yellow street lanterns.The restaurant (Alef's) was winding down for the night (as was the rest of the square - it seems 10pm is a little late to eat out in Poland!) but the waiter kindly agreed to serve us, and we promised to order something that was quick to cook! The restaurant was decorated in a way I want to describe as "homey" complete with giant crocheted doily tablecloths, and dried flowers (or were they plastic? I can't remember now!). There was even a picture of Prince Charles on the wall - along with others I assume were celebrities I didn't recognise - all obviously taken in the restaurant. It was also full of cats. Very homey. While in Krakow we decided to take a walking tour - I did a couple in Berlin and found them really interesting, so seeing the famous jewish quarter of Krakow with someone who actually knew what to look at seemed like a great idea. As it turned out, we were the only people on the tour, so we had our own private tour guide, who showed us around for three or four hours. Krakow was one of the few places in europe that welcomed jews through most of its history, and had an enormous community before the second world war. They had been more or less given their own town (Kazimierz) just outside the city walls, which is, of course, only a ten minute walk from the centre of the old town today. It was once big enough to rival Krakow itself. The tour also took us to Schindler's factory, which hasn't yet been turned into a major museum and tourist attraction, but probably will be soon. We saw what was possibly his office (although our guide said it wasmore likely his secretary's office, but that's close enough). The Jewish Quarter tour was so interesting that we decided to take another walking tour the next day - this time of Nova Huta, the created Soviet suburb on the edge of town. We had the same guide, and again there was only the two of us on the tour, and we got the impression that Lukas (in polish it's pronounces Wukas) was getting a bit sick of us. The tour was nearly an hour shorter than advertised (perhaps we walk faster?) and there were only a couple of sights on it, some of which are interesting. including the completely hand made church paintakingly built during the communist period without any nails and with rocks carried in in buckets by the parishioners. We also spent at least half an hour in a cafe, for no particular reason we could work out. It was a cafe that communist party members used to frequent, apparently. It was all interesting enough, but not exactly what the brochure advertised!