krakow, day one: new year, old world

We woke up on the first day of 2020, ate some yogurt with tasty chocolatey granola, contended with a stubborn Polish washing machine, and headed towards Krakow's old town. Most things were closed, but we found a bicycle coffee stand in the main square among stalls selling various meats, potatoes, soups, and dumplings.

Not far away, we stepped through a small corridor into the courtyard of Collegium Maius, a 14th-century building at Jagiellonian University where Nicolaus Copernicus once studied. We enjoyed the quiet space for a few minutes; then two small wooden doors in the wall above us opened and a recording of a medieval fanfare played from unseen speakers. A large tour group that had followed us in took up their positions on a nearby staircase, phones held aloft for photos. As we watched in confusion, a small wooden statue of a priest emerged from the left door, slid along a short length of track, and disappeared into the right. It was followed by a knight, a merchant, and a handful of others. Eventually, the procession ended, the music stopped, the doors closed, and the tour group shuffled back out to the street. We felt like we'd been in one of the more obscure Monty Python sketches.

We saw more of the old town, then ate some potato & ricotta perogies in another vaulted basement restaurant. They completely lived up to our expectations. We walked a bit more slowly to the Old Jewish Quarter, passing historic synagogues, the WWII ghetto, and Schindler's factory.

The rest of the day was all about wandering: we saw a few more churches, enjoyed some interesting architecture, drank some sweet warm butterbeer from the Leaky Cauldron (a Harry Potter-themed basement cafe), generally enjoyed the laid-back feel of Jan 1 in the non-touristy parts of Krakow, and also got quite chilly.