We originally planned to take a big two-week vacation in June to the Amalfi Coast. Once we realized that you cannot in fact plan a vacation to the Amalfi Coast a month before you leave (can you say no vacancy?), we adjusted our plans to go to Puglia instead. And then work slowly eroded our best laid plans, and two weeks before our originally planned vacation we were left scrambling to make plans for a weekend break. As we have previous discussed, there aren’t many convenient long weekend trips to take from Cyprus because of the vagaries of flight schedules. We had briefly discussed going to Israel, but as there are daily flights to Israel year-round, we decided we to take advantage of the summer flight surge and go somewhere we couldn’t go in November or February. And so we chose Krakow, as there was a direct flight there from Paphos on Wednesday and a return flight on Sunday morning. Done.
We woke up at an ungodly hour (3:30 am) to make the two-hour drive to Paphos for a 7:00 am flight. Though the airport was small, RyanAir was a hot mess. We had strategically packed to avoid having to check any bags, but I did cave and pay for aisle seats (no windows available 🙁 ) for both of us. The flight was uneventful, and we had rented an apartment at a lovely “ApartHotel” on Kopernicus street, just outside of Old Town Krakow. I was a little worried about the whole ApartHotel situation– sometimes it’s nice to just walk through a door and be welcomed by a 24-hour reception desk– but this worked out very well as we had a small kitchenette and sitting area.
My favorite part about Krakow was that the Old Town had a park and a path all the way around its perimeter, with terrifically green grass and trees with leaves so big they blocked the sun and the rain. Neither of those things really exist in Nicosia (and in fact, there are no good walking paths either), so it was a real treat to meander and people watch. Every time we crossed the park on our way between Old Town and our hotel, we passed a conservatory where, at all hours of the night and day, the sound of piano, cello, and violin came floating out of open windows in a pleasant cacophony. (The picture above is not the conservatory, just an interesting building in Krakow.)
We stumbled upon the “Galeria Andrzej Mleczki” while exploring. On our first pass, it was closed but showed great promise for a non-tacky souvenir. When we wandered by the second time, it was open. We bought several post-card sized prints, including this one of Sisyphus below. My version is in English, and the speech bubble says “I’ll call you when I’m done.” It often feels like groundhog day in Cyprus, so it seemed like a fitting souvenir to proudly display in my office so I can remember to laugh every once in a while.
Krakow was bustling with tourists and these golf carts offering tours.
Krakow has this very distinctive church with asymmetrical towers. They are asymmetrical because the taller spire is actually owned and operated by the municipality and the one on the right by the church it is attached to. I bought one of those 10 euro street sketches of the church and spires because I thought it was so interesting. My new plan is to collect a similar sepia sketch everywhere we go (at least everywhere such sketches exist), get them all framed, and have a gallery wall of the places Severin and I have visited together.
