Back to Day 5: Krakow

Ok, picking up where I stopped in my excitement over the Tatras...this was our day in Krakow.

Agenda:
Get up
See castle
Find dragon

Today is the day to explore Krakow. This is my favourite city so far - walkable, beautiful and affordable. As with seemingly every city we will visit, there is a castle - Wawel Castle. And rumour has it that somewhere around it is a dragon...
Our street seems quiet but as we near the castle, we find the hordes. We climb up the cobbled walkway that winds around the perimeter. From the top there are of course great views of they city. Wes, a frequent traveller of North American cities, marvels at how low European cities are compared to the skyscrapers at home. (His internal Radiant-City-compass has also been thrown for a loop in the winding streets and he is consistently surprised when he is sure things are  'just around the corner' and it turns out to be a completely different street.)
There are lineups everywhere so we don't buy tickets for the exhibitions though I did want to see some crypts - I mean, who doesn't?
After a full exploration of the fortress, we exit through the walkway by the river and wind our way down. There is a paved walkway along the river with statues and it is here we seek the dragon. Under some trees, around a bend, he stands. There is a legend in Krakow about a dragon who terrorized the city, eating young ladies. Some stories say that the king offered his daughter's hand in marriage (once she became the only lady left in town) to the young man who could best the dragon. Apparently it was a poor man's son (bless the consistency of fairy tales) who put some sort of explosive edible item outside the dragon's cave, it eats it and its throat gets so hot, it drinks all the water in the river to no avail and then dies. Yay happily ever after for the young man and princess. Now the dragon is immortalized in a statue at the base of the castle which, believe it or not, breathes fire every couple of minutes! On the other hand, any dread that it could strike into the hearts of passersby is significantly reduced by the many children crawling on it!
   With our day's agenda accomplished, we set off for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant in the main square. Then it is off to the Jewish quarter for a bit of a wander. We pick a cafe with a patio beside a 16th c. church where we sit and have some pints in the sunshine (although here they are 'half litres', not pints.)
  We then head back to the hostel, grab our things and walk to the bus station for the 2 hour trip to Zakopane. Honestly, the bus trip was $6. Crazy. A quick note on Zakopane, which we got into late and didn't really explore - it kinda looks like Banff exploded. It is a hiking town in summer and skiing town in winter, so gone were the fashionable styles of Krakow, the heels and the dresses. Here were hikers, some outfitted to spend days or weeks in the park - packs, bedrolls, walking sticks. We were just happy with the cold, crisp mountain air.

More from Prague later. JM