 One
of the most recommendable places in Poland, Eastern Europe and worldwide is Krakow.
Krakow is absolutely lovely, well advertised and its splendour widely acclaimed.
There are many good hotels and tourist facilities. Despite intrusion of millions
of visitors and curious cameras Krakow remains doggedly Cracovian, microcosmical
and photogenic.
Krakow has it all: it is wonderfully Polish, though on
its shaping participated citizens from all the Eastern Europe plus Jews, Austrians
(it was a part of the Austrian Empire in 1795-1867 and Austo-Hungarian Empire
in 1867-1918), Italians (Cracovian Renaissance has no match but for Italy), Scots,
and Armenians. Krakow was the capital of Poland in 1038-1592, residence of the
king and an intellectual hub of Europe, though it never was the centre of universe.
Krakow has hundreds of remarkable monuments which you won't notice because they
are so close to each other. Some areas of Krakow are very painful, Spielberg shot
The Schindler's List in the originally Jewish part of the town, Kazimierz, though
generally the people are easy-going and the town abounds in amusement venues.
Though having a large historical core, on the Eastern city edge was built in 1950s
the country's biggest Socialist experiment -the steelworks Nowa Huta. Krakow is
a center of one of the new Euroregions and its name is a pun, obviously more pleasant
than the Warsaw's.
Krakow is the place to see and stay in until you get
absolutely bored - many claim it never happens in Krakow, while the other party
say that it takes there at least 7 days before it happens, heretics with divergent
opinions are rare.
 Being
there you can imagine teenage inebriated Copernicus roaming the winding lanes
of the University quarter. He would come some 50 years later across the revolutionary
discovery conflicting with the commonplace misconception that it is the Earth
what moves and not the Sun. University museum walls shield another peculiar exhibit
- a Middle Age codex which as the first book in the world depicts America. In
Czartoryjski Museum there is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. The Grand Square
is arguably the biggest in Europe, the Veit Stoss's altar in St.Mary's church
is the biggest Gothic sculpture in the world, at the Florianska Gate is arguably
the biggest city bastion in Europe, there are mammoth bones on the cathedral door
and a stone from the Moon in a different Krakow's church, the Royal Castle has
arguably the best Dutch tapestries in the world and the cathedral one of the biggest
bells in Europe - just to mention a fraction of what is to on display. Not to
mention what is hidden.
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