Last Day in Kraków

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Kazimierz, Old Town and Slightly Beyond (Kraków, Poland)

Even when we prompted them for specific reasons, Laura and Tim couldn’t tell us why Kraków was great, just that it was. In terms of picking the four or five stops we were making in Europe we mostly took their word for it, and were glad we did. It only took a couple days in Kraków before we were feeling the same way… I’m not sure why this place is great, but it really is.

Kraków feels right, in the same way that Wellington feels right to me. There’s a comfort to the size of the city, and in our short time there we found cafes and restaurants where we would happily become regulars. There’s beautiful old buildings and friendly people.

I’ve tried to be specific, but I think you won’t quite know until you visit Kraków yourself.

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MOCAK (Kraków, Poland)

MOCAK, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, may have been my favourite art museum we encountered during our recent trip to Europe. At the time we visited a large part of the exhibition space was part of a larger multi-country commemoration of Fluxus, with 4 other exhibitions on in the rest of the museum. A virtual tour of the MOCAK Collection III can be seen here and although the prints are even more impressive than the digital display, be sure to have a look at Wojciech Wilczyk’s Post-industrial Spaces on the MOCAK site.

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Wieleczka Salt Mine

It is difficult for me to suggest Wieliczka Salt Mine as a must-do when visiting Kraków. Although it pops up on many recommendation lists, I feel it’s more impressive in concept than as a visit. Given that we did the Tourist route (there is are also Miners’ and Pilgrims’ routes), the tour itself feels very manufactured in a family-theme-park kind of way. However, the history of the mine and it’s sheer immensity – 178 miles, which the tours merely touch on – is extremely impressive. As much as it is a tourist spot, hundreds of years of life, culture and religion were experienced underground here. The relics aren’t just the caverns and tunnels themselves but chapels and sculptures too. Read more about it on wikipedia or the Wieliczka Salt Mine’s own site.

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Jüdisches Museum Berlin

If you visit Berlin I recommend making a visit to the Jewish Museum Berlin, one of the best museums we visited in Europe. It’s well curated, contains a lot of interesting objects and stories, and is an excellent learning experience. The monumental building designed by Daniel Libeskind guides and influences the experience.

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