Krakow

30th June - 4th July
Like Prague, Krakow is firmly set on the tourist trail so we stepped in time with the camera snapping hordes and the late-night kebab feasting. The Old Town square is large and houses an old and beautiful market. One can watch the world gawk and pace around the clock tower from which a trumpet plays and stops abruptly (a reinactment of an old scene involving a trumpeter that warned the town of an oncoming invasion and was shot with an arrow while playing).

Here's Zhenia in the courtyard of the Wawel Castle that overlooks the city.

We spent much of our time in the Old Jewish Quarter. Here's Z shopping for our luncheon.
We took a visit to Oskar Schindler's factory building where he saved 1100 jews from being deported to Auschwitz.....
Surprisingly, very few tourists make it out here. Not much of the original factory remains and the reconstruction of what once was his office has little more than a desk and a hat stand. However, there are some plans to complete the museum and to refurbish the factory into a modern art gallery.
Strolling around on our last day in Krakow, we suddenly stumbled on a dark little bar on the outskirt of the main square in (name of jewish section). Black and white portraits lined the discolored walls, while pre-war furniture and other antiquated accents made the entire place look trapped in time. Even the hard-cover books arranged to appear some-what accidentally placed around dark corners and cabinets felt like stepping into the lives of those old photographs on the wall.