kraków and Konin (Poland)

How to get the very best from Planet Earth.
User avatar
Dr Markus
Posts: 17670
Joined: 07 Jan 2012, 18:16

kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Dr Markus » 19 Jan 2016, 19:54

Heading over for a few beers and i think there's a wedding on as well :D . Sightseeing in Krakow and wedding in konin.

Any do's and don't's? Any good suggestions?
Drama Queenie wrote:You are a chauvinist of the quaintest kind. About as threatening as Jack Duckworth, you are a harmless relic of that cherished era when things were 'different'. Now get back to drawing a moustache on that page three model

User avatar
Polishgirl
Posts: 9513
Joined: 21 Dec 2009, 22:06

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Polishgirl » 19 Jan 2016, 23:20

What Griff said.

Schindler Factory is a superb museum-definitely worth a visit.

Cafe Camelot close to the main square is wonderful for food, booze and is open till late.

The Royal Castle and the cathedral are pretty impressive. As is St Mary's Basilica on the main square. If you have any vestigial Catholicism in your soul, you'll probably love it.

Just wander and enjoy. It's a magical city, and very walkable.
echolalia wrote: I despise Prefab Sprout. It will be decades before “hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque” is surpassed as the most terrible lyric in pop history. That fucking bastard ruined all three things for me forever.

User avatar
yomptepi
BCB thumbscrew of Justice
Posts: 36415
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 17:57
Location: well

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby yomptepi » 20 Jan 2016, 16:25

What Pippa says really. Walk walk walk . Go into the churches and be amazed. Make sure you have a look around the castle grounds, even if you don't have time to go inside. beer is cheap everywhere, and food is too. Go in the cake shops. Don't bother with the tour bus, the roads are terrible, and you can't really see anything. Krakow is wonderful.Just make sure you take your walking shoes, as it is the only way to see it all.
You don't like me...do you?

Limpin' Jez McKenzie
Poptastic
Posts: 15389
Joined: 05 Jul 2004, 22:01

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Limpin' Jez McKenzie » 20 Jan 2016, 18:36

Salt mines.
I kept thinking "swim as far as you can, swim as far as you can".

User avatar
Polishgirl
Posts: 9513
Joined: 21 Dec 2009, 22:06

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Polishgirl » 21 Jan 2016, 18:56

Plus, Krakow has this!

Image
echolalia wrote: I despise Prefab Sprout. It will be decades before “hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque” is surpassed as the most terrible lyric in pop history. That fucking bastard ruined all three things for me forever.

User avatar
Foxhound
Posts: 2415
Joined: 04 Sep 2010, 17:52
Location: By the back fence near the tracks.

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Foxhound » 22 Jan 2016, 18:25

Plus Krakow has this:

PartyKrakow

8-)
Brits out of the Falklands!

Evangeline - living on in our hearts though long removed from our shores.

Beebsy wrote:Fuck off. Wanker.

User avatar
yomptepi
BCB thumbscrew of Justice
Posts: 36415
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 17:57
Location: well

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby yomptepi » 23 Jan 2016, 10:20

Foxhound wrote:Plus Krakow has this:

PartyKrakow

8-)


One of the bains of East European cities these days is Stag and Hen party culture. Utter fucktards staggering around the place, only interested in the price of beer, and behaving appallingly. In the long run I am sure they do more harm to places like Prague than they do good. One of the really good things about Krakow was that there did not appear to be any signs of such willful misbehaviour.
And I wouldn't mind, but recent surveys suggest that even the people who go on these wretched charabanc trips have a miserable time. Who wants to get dragged around a strange town in a stupid costume just because the beer is cheap? Only a complete drone.
You don't like me...do you?

User avatar
Dr Markus
Posts: 17670
Joined: 07 Jan 2012, 18:16

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Dr Markus » 23 May 2016, 21:03

My friend who is getting married told us that that he blocked booked a tour of the concentration camps. It will be tight viewing but a necessary viewing in some ways.
Drama Queenie wrote:You are a chauvinist of the quaintest kind. About as threatening as Jack Duckworth, you are a harmless relic of that cherished era when things were 'different'. Now get back to drawing a moustache on that page three model

User avatar
Goat Boy
Bogarting the joint
Posts: 32974
Joined: 20 Mar 2007, 12:11
Location: In the perfumed garden

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Goat Boy » 24 May 2016, 12:32

I know some people think they should visit such places but I've never quite understood the whole visiting Auschwitz thing.
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

User avatar
Dr Markus
Posts: 17670
Joined: 07 Jan 2012, 18:16

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Dr Markus » 24 May 2016, 17:03

Goat Boy wrote:I know some people think they should visit such places but I've never quite understood the whole visiting Auschwitz thing.


I don't know, a ground experience of sorts? Take you out of your own bubble to let you know what can happen in the world? Might have a different effect on different people.
Drama Queenie wrote:You are a chauvinist of the quaintest kind. About as threatening as Jack Duckworth, you are a harmless relic of that cherished era when things were 'different'. Now get back to drawing a moustache on that page three model

User avatar
Goat Boy
Bogarting the joint
Posts: 32974
Joined: 20 Mar 2007, 12:11
Location: In the perfumed garden

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Goat Boy » 24 May 2016, 17:36

But I know exactly what can happen. I just don't want to be in a room where thousands died, where people literally shat themselves in fear and where the scratch marks of terrified souls scar the walls, you know?

"Great tour! Now where's the gift shop?"

I just find it a bit...odd
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

User avatar
Dr Markus
Posts: 17670
Joined: 07 Jan 2012, 18:16

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Dr Markus » 24 May 2016, 17:40

Goat Boy wrote:But I know exactly what can happen. I just don't want to be in a room where thousands died, where people literally shat themselves in fear and where the scratch marks of terrified souls scar the walls, you know?

"Great tour! Now where's the gift shop?"

I just find it a bit...odd



You're correct it is odd, but for whatever reason i want to see it. :?
Drama Queenie wrote:You are a chauvinist of the quaintest kind. About as threatening as Jack Duckworth, you are a harmless relic of that cherished era when things were 'different'. Now get back to drawing a moustache on that page three model

User avatar
Polishgirl
Posts: 9513
Joined: 21 Dec 2009, 22:06

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Polishgirl » 24 May 2016, 21:23

Goat Boy wrote:But I know exactly what can happen. I just don't want to be in a room where thousands died, where people literally shat themselves in fear and where the scratch marks of terrified souls scar the walls, you know?

"Great tour! Now where's the gift shop?"

I just find it a bit...odd


I couldn't agree more. You've articulated exactly how I feel about it. When I went to Budapest, my friend and I were waiting to board the plane, and there was a middle-aged couple behind us, who were really chatty. They said they often liked to do a last-minute city break from Bristol airport, and said they'd most recently been to Krakow. When I said I'd been too, they asked if I'd been to Auschwitz. I said no. The woman's reply was " Oh, it's not as bad as you think it's going to be"....

There was so much in that statement that astonished me, I couldn't think of anything to say, so my friend, who is socially much more polite and adept, managed to pick up the conversation.

I don't want to be part of some mass tourist "experience" that trundles round these places. What happened was unimaginable. You can't understand it, you can't grasp it - personally, I never want to be able to understand it. What fitting wisdom or insight could you possibly gain from gawping at a gas chamber, or a lake that was filled with people's ashes?

Perhaps I'd feel differently if I had Jewish ancestry; I don't know. I think it's right that Auschwitz is kept as a memorial, but there's something - for me- dubiously voyeuristic about visiting it. No matter how many times I go back to Poland, I will never, ever go to see it.
echolalia wrote: I despise Prefab Sprout. It will be decades before “hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque” is surpassed as the most terrible lyric in pop history. That fucking bastard ruined all three things for me forever.

Hugh
Posts: 16158
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 20:43

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Hugh » 24 May 2016, 21:51

I went. I had very missed feelings about it but I saw as a kind of pilgrimage - a paying of respect. I'm glad I did. You are right when you say that you can't grasp it though, it is incomprehensible.

User avatar
yomptepi
BCB thumbscrew of Justice
Posts: 36415
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 17:57
Location: well

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby yomptepi » 01 Jun 2016, 10:33

Goat Boy wrote:I know some people think they should visit such places but I've never quite understood the whole visiting Auschwitz thing.


And even weirder is the way the tour salespersons try to pressure you into going. We were constantly being jumped on by young people, who, whilst beaming amiably, asked in a cheerful voice " hey, you want to go to Auschwitz?" And we really did not want to go. We did the the bus tour which was only remarkable in it took you to a place where there were a thousand garden sheds and beautifully attended allotments. About two miles out of town. Krakow is its own reward. A lovely town, full of questions, and not overly restored yet. The places where it is crumbling are just as nice as the places where they have renewed things to the point you would never know they were old. And the castle is brilliant.

It really is a great place for a long weekend though, whether you feel the need to see the camps or not.
You don't like me...do you?

Phil T

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Phil T » 02 Jun 2016, 09:46

Pat O'Banton wrote:
Goat Boy wrote:But I know exactly what can happen. I just don't want to be in a room where thousands died, where people literally shat themselves in fear and where the scratch marks of terrified souls scar the walls, you know?

"Great tour! Now where's the gift shop?"

I just find it a bit...odd


I went to pay my respects and to reflect. And to acknowledge that it happened. It felt important to go.


Pippa and I disagree about this, but I'm with you on it.

User avatar
The Red Heifer
Fucking Crackers
Posts: 15048
Joined: 31 Aug 2003, 01:28
Location: South Penriff
Contact:

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby The Red Heifer » 12 Jul 2016, 09:05

Goat Boy wrote:But I know exactly what can happen. I just don't want to be in a room where thousands died, where people literally shat themselves in fear and where the scratch marks of terrified souls scar the walls, you know?

"Great tour! Now where's the gift shop?"

I just find it a bit...odd


I understand what you're saying here, but I went to Auschwitz in 2009 and the air was heavy with the history of the whole thing. The vast majority of the people we came across were respectful and overwhelmed by the situation, and those two imbeciles gleefully taking photos soon knew the score when the ex-Heiferette launched down their throats. It's an important thing to experience in my opinion.
Wadesmith wrote:Why is it that when there's a 'What do you think of this?' post, it's always absolute cobblers?

User avatar
naughty boy
hounds people off the board
Posts: 20248
Joined: 24 Apr 2007, 23:21

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby naughty boy » 12 Jul 2016, 19:50

It's interesting, for fuck's sake.
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

User avatar
Goat Boy
Bogarting the joint
Posts: 32974
Joined: 20 Mar 2007, 12:11
Location: In the perfumed garden

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby Goat Boy » 12 Jul 2016, 19:58

Brian Cox's Forces of Nature is interesting.
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

User avatar
clive gash
wannabee enfant terrible
Posts: 17219
Joined: 29 Sep 2007, 00:32
Location: down the rabbit hole

Re: kraków and Konin (Poland)

Postby clive gash » 13 Jul 2016, 09:12

They do an amazing gluten-free Kielbasa on the concession stands, worth a trip in itself.
It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

Diamond Dog wrote:...it quite clearly hit the target with you and your nonce...

...a multitude of innuendo and hearsay...

...I'm producing facts here...


Return to “All Around The World”