Sat 03.Oct.2020
California
images - Krakow, Poland Sep. 2007
In 2007, I needed cataract surgery. Being uninsured, I needed it abroad.
Some googling led me to a Polish eye clinic. Their credentials checked out,
their reviews were good.
The clinic's location is a rust-belt town, known mostly for the
country's largest brewery. No place you would go for tourism. But it is a
couple of hours from Krakow. Even in my near-complete ignorance of Poland,
I knew that Krakow is the country's number one tourist magnet.
So I spent most of a week in Krakow, before plunging into rust-belt eye
surgery.
Most Americans my age think of Poland as dull, dark, and in black-and-white.
So your jaw can drop a mile when you first step into the technicolor circus
of Main Square in Krakow!
The scallop-roofed building, the old Cloth Market contains shops
less memorable than the open space outside.
Of the many musical buskers working the square, these two guys got
my admiration with a rigorous rendition of J. S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue
in D-minor! I tipped them double, explaining that one was for Toccata, one
for Fugue.
This glass organist was also a delight to listen to. Alas for memory -
I remember nothing of what he played, or whether I even recognized it.
Goodness knows which people here were locals, or Polish tourists, or
international visitors. It all made for an endless people show. My favorite
leisure activity after each day's explorations, was to park myself at a cafe
on the square, and nurse a drink while I watched a living Fellini film
unroll in front of me.
Some kind of costume parade; groups with kids, others all grown-ups.
On the town hill, above Main Square, sits the historic heart of Krakow and
Poland - the Wawel, castle of the Polish kings. These days,
the grounds are an open park. The interiors are said to be historic and beautiful,
but I couldn't resist the glorious late-September days outdoors.
A Touch of Sign-spotting
Have you ever worked in an office big enough (or small enough!) for
office politics
to complicate your life? I believe WARS is some local bureaucracy.
I never inquired about it though; I like the sign as it is.
The demons of fuzzy focus strike! Too late to change it now!
If you have any "worth stuff", leave it in the safe. My B&B/hotel, just off Main Square,
handled the quirks of English far better than I ever will Polish!