A Game of Cat and Shark: Old Town

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Krakow is the shits!

Last weekend, we went to Krakow, another city here in Poland. And it's an awesome city! I've always been raving about how nice and beautiful Warsaw is on my previous posts, but seriously... Krakow just amazed me. No offense to loyal Varsovians out there, but Krakow is just made of pure AWESOME. =D

Maybe it's just the recency effect talking, but Krakow is now my favorite city in the world. What can I say, I have a soft spot for non-asphalt paved streets on old towns filled with crazy and/or drunk people during the day and night

On a side note: I think I may have just tasted the best cake I've ever tasted in my life last night. We had after-dinner coffee and desserts at Cava, a coffee shop in Nowy Swiat here in Warsaw. I ordered the Tort Czekoladowe, and it tasted so good I can't even describe it. That's one point for Warsaw, I guess. :D

With the Wawel Cathedral in the background. The dome on the right is made of pure gold, and inside the cathedral are tombs of Polish kings and queens, and relics of two Polish saints. It's one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen.

The leaning Town Hall Tower in Krakow's Rynek Glowny (Grand Square). On the right side of the pic is the Sukiennice, the Cloth Hall where the textile trade used to go on. It was built in 1300. It's now being used as a market for tourist goods, with cafes springing up all around it.

The Cloth Hall, from the foot of the town hall tower, and the town hall tower from inside the Cloth Hall.

The streets and buildings of Krakow's Old Town:

Saint Mary's Church on the right, horse-drawn carriages for rent on the left

One of Krakow's crazy (and pretty) girls. I gave her 30 groszy, despite the abuse being done to the teddy bear by the dude behind her.

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Now playing: Modest Mouse - People as Places as People
via FoxyTunes

Monday, September 17, 2007

Week 1 in Warsaw

It's been a week since we arrived in Warsaw. Everything's going great :D

The place I'm staying at is awesome! We've been taking the public transport to get around, and it's a lot, lot better than the public transport in Manila. It's way more organized which makes going around the city really easy for a newbie. No jeepneys here, and buses actually follow loading and unloading zones. :p We bought a card which allows us to use the bus, tram, and subway around Warsaw anytime we want, as much as we want, for the next 3 months we'll be staying here. Walking a few kilometers a day has been commonplace for us too, but it isn't bad at all, since the cool weather allows us to not break a sweat even if we walk around the city for 5 hours.

Since I've mention the cool weather, let me tell you more about it. It's freaking cold!!!1!1!! And to think that our officemates have been telling us that we should wait a few more months when winter kicks in because it's actually still warm! It's 12*C outside! And it's supposed to be warm! I might come back to Manila with three fingers lost from frostbite, seriously. (On a warmer note, because of the cool temparatures I've already bought two more jackets hehe.) Of course, the fact that its waaay colder here than it ever is, was and will be in Manila didn't stop us from buying ice cream. There's a bunch of ice cream stores over here. One thing I've discovered though, kebab and shawarma eateries are as ubiquitous here as Starbucks is in Makati. Who would've thought that? :p

So far, we've walked around the Palace of Culture and Science, which is just a street away from our apartment, been to Wilanow Palace, visited the Monument of the Warsaw Uprising, strolled around Old Town and New Town (Stare Miasto and Nowe Miasto, respectively) (a very, very beautiful place :-) ), and some parks in Muranow (and three malls in and around Central Warsaw.)