oh boy. krakow. it’s the most beautiful city. i don’t even know where to start. the cathedrals, the rynek, the castle, the river, the university… it’s all pretty amazing. krakow has so many legends and so much history attached to it. unlike warsaw, the war spared the city for the most part, and a lot of the architecture is much like it always was. 
the cathedrals, good lord, the cathedrals and the churches here are really something else. it’s not enough that they’re on every other block, but they’re amazing. the royal krakow cathedral is the oldest and most historically significant, housing the tombs of poland’s kings and queens and giant bells that can be heard throughout the whole city when rung (on special occasions such as the new year or the death of the pope). it’s up on wawel hill with the castle and it sure has some history. then there’s the basylika mariacka right on the rynek… oh man, i got dizzy standing in front of it, it’s so big. a trumpeter plays on the hour every hour from the top of the tower, and you can just see a little speck that is his trumpet in the window. the inside of the cathedral is gorgeous, there are incredibly old and intricate wooden carvings on the walls, the alter, everywhere… it’s so hard to describe the place, but it’s enough to make anyone awestruck. and there are so many beautiful churches, i couldn’t even begin to describe them.
the castle was really cool, and we got to see so many old pieces of artwork and architecture and carpentry and sculpture and weaponry… you name it. the museums are of course impressive and there’s no shortage of things to do in this city. the rynek or town square is probably the nicest in all of
we’re staying with a friend of my dad’s who has a nursery of his own. he has two daughters, but the one that’s our age is off on a sailing trip or something, so we didn’t get to meet her. it’s a really nice place, he’s got an amazing garden and quite a view, and with all the trees it smells like home. we’d never even met this guy or his family before but they took us in on short notice and bequeathed to us their guest house so we’ve been living in luxury for a while. on top of that, he bought us a boatload of gluten-free food and like a week’s worth of groceries (you have no idea… we spent our last night there gorging. “natalia, you can’t have any more ice cream until you eat more cake!”) and then he completely funded a tour of the city with his younger daughter and a ridiculously nice polish girl who works for him. and he picked us up from the train station and took us to restaurants and drove us around and wouldn’t let us pay for a thing. and of course we don’t eat enough so he has to feed us every chance he gets and bring us fresh bread and milk in the mornings. and then he didn’t want us to leave and tried very hard to convince us to stay for at least a couple more days. he’s telling me about how many great ski trips we’ll go on when i come back in the winter because of course i have to come back and visit them then. and that is polish hospitality for you.
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