two backpacks and a diaper bag

Thursday, March 29th. Krakow. These past few nights, Arthur would wake up every two hours or so. I felt so sleep-deprived. Yet, when the sun pierced through the curtain, I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep. Arthur would wake us up around 7 every morning due to the sun coming in to the apartment. There was no block-out curtain. Also, there was construction next to the apartment, so the sound would wake him up.

Yesterday, we walked around Old Town, Wawel Castle, and we visited Schindler’s Factory. Today, we walked around the Jewish District.

The Airbnb was only two blocks away from the main square. It was in a great location even though it didn’t have a dryer as per described in the listing. We ended up creating our bathroom as a make-shift drying facility.

Anyway, we started our walk from the Barbican through the Theatre, and we made our way to the Main Square.

We walked through Cloth Hall and its many souvenir stores to the Clock Tower.

As we walked around, we noticed an outdoor market. With the flowers all around, it felt like Spring… even though it was still cold.

We stopped by a fried-cheese stall and bought a small thing to try.

We didn’t like it. It didn’t taste very good and it had a funny after-taste. We then stopped by a waffle stall to buy something to wash down the taste. Arthur was awake through the whole walk, and we finally took him out at the waffle stall when he was complaining about being in the car seat.

Sean got a waffle with white-chocolate topping.

And I got Bigos (a hunter’s stew) from the soup stall next door.

After the food, we continued to walk around the market.

Then we stopped by McDonald’s next to the Square to feed, change, and put Arthur back to sleep.

Afterwards, we continued walking down towards Wawel Castle.

Arthur woke up as we got to the bottom of the castle and we decided to stop by a restaurant nearby. We got some pierogi there as we fed and once again changed Arthur. We could tell he was very sleepy and he was not in a good mood. It was difficult to put him to sleep. Luckily, the restaurant was huge and they had put us in the children’s section. When we first got there, no one else was around. When we left, though, three other families had just entered.

From here, we took an uber to Schindler’s Factory.

While we waited in the long line to buy the tickets, a Polish woman approached us and essentially told us that this museum was not as good as she expected. It didn’t have much about Schindler at all. She said that she felt bad we were waiting in line with a baby, but that if we missed the museum, we wouldn’t be missing much, especially since we have been to Auschwitz. She also said the Polin Museum in Warsaw was better, as well as the Warsaw Rising Museum.

We were now curious to see this museum. Was it really that bad?

Another interesting thing: a lady came up to us and asked if she could cut in front of us since she was only one person. We said she had to ask everyone else who was waiting in line behind us. She didn’t. She went to the back of the line instead.

Once we got the tickets, we went inside the museum. We were confused with the first exhibition. This wasn’t about Schindler. It was about WWII in Auschwitz. To be honest, we were more interested in Schindler and his story. The Polish woman was right. There was not much about Schindler; only two exhibits out of the 28. We tried to head straight to the two exhibits. Unfortunately, the way the museum was laid out required you to go through the exhibitions in a one-way manner through small lanes and passageway. We had to inch our way to the end of the exhibits passing through Spanish, French, and Japanese tour groups. All with a stroller. And some parts of the passageway were with cobbled stones.

When we finally got to the exhibition about Schindler, there wasn’t much. I suppose the exhibitions themselves were pretty cool if you wanted to learn more about Krakow from 1939-1945, but we had a different interest in mind.

We left the museum quite quickly and we headed back home.

And once again, we ordered uber eats for dinner.

This morning, we left the house quite late. We first headed toward the Main Square and then to St. Francis church. The church decor was beautiful! And the stained-glass windows were Art Nouveau.

What was cool about it too was that Sean and I have never seen a confessional in action. There were about 7 different confessionals going at the same time at the church. We could see the priests and the church-goer inside the confessional booths.

From there, we walked across a park toward Kazimierz, the Jewish District.

The walk was interesting, too. We went through a part of town that didn’t look too pretty. And even in the district itself, it was a bit rundown. It reminded me of some parts of Oakland that’s supposed to be grungy and hip. Or Haji Lane area.

The murals were pretty cool, though.

Ah, yes, and there was also some kind of filming when we were there.

We stopped by a Michelin-recommended restaurant to have a late lunch. It was okay. The appetizer was really good, but the main course was nothing to write about.

We walked home after this and had an early night.

In general, what I enjoyed most about our trip was the walks. We could take our time, drop by random cafes and restaurant, look at what the locals are doing, and see the various architecture and ways of living.

For example, we passed by two cafes where you can do your laundry. So, while you wait for your things to wash and dry, you get to enjoy a cup of coffee or a pint of beer. How cool is that?

Anyway, tomorrow we will take a 7-hour train ride to Prague. We’ll see how this turns out with a baby.