theatre of the absurd: Kraków, part IV - Milkbar Tomasza, Rynek Główny, Sukiennice and Wawel Castle Hill (and castle)

Wawel Castle

I went back to the hostel and asked them to recommend somewhere nice to eat. Three years ago Will had taken me to a milk bar/bar mleczny in Wroclaw which I'd enjoyed, although the food wasn't particularly visually appealing. The girls at the hostel circled out a couple of milk bars in the Rynek for me and off I went, aiming for the nearest and most accessible one, which happened to be the Milkbar Tomasza.

For future reference, here's the address:

ul. św. Tomasza 24
31-018 Kraków
Poland
Śródmieście, Stare Miasto
Phone number +48 12 422 17 06

The service was very good, but I had to wait quite a while for the food because business was unsurprisingly good. When say while, I mean 10 - 30 minutes. I ended up having almost every one of my meals here.

I recommend the scrambled eggs, and do not recommended the breaded meat. This place was ridiculously cheap and served gigantic portions, which even I couldn't finish. This seems to be a thing in eastern and central Europe.

Here's a rather good description of milk bars in Poland, which has an interesting if rather depressing background in Soviet communism:

After the fall of German Nazi regime, Poland became a communist state, and a satellite of the Soviet Union. The majority of the population was poor, contrary to official propaganda, and expensive and even moderately-priced restaurants were derided as "capitalist". During the post-war years, most restaurants were nationalized and then closed down by the communist authorities. In the mid-1960s milk bars were common as a means of offering cheap meals to people working in companies that had no official canteen. They still served mostly dairy-based and vegetarian meals, especially during the period of martial law in the early 1980s, when meat was rationed.
The prevalent idea at that time was to provide all people with cheap meals at the place of their work. At times the price of the meals served in the workplace canteens was included in a worker's salary. However, there was also a large number of people working in smaller firms that had no canteen at their disposal. Because of this, during the tenure of Władysław Gomułka, the authorities created a network of small self-service eateries. The meals, subsidized by the state, were cheap and easily available to anyone.
Apart from raw or processed dairy products, milk bars also served egg (omelets or egg cutlets), cereal or flour-based meals such as pierogi. After the fall of the communist system and the end of shortage economy, the majority of milk bars went bankrupt as they were superseded by regular restaurants. However, some of them were preserved as part of the relics of the welfare state so as to support the poorer members of the Polish society.
In early 2010 milk bars were seen to make a comeback. They became small, inexpensive restaurants that took advantage of welfare state nostalgia, while providing good quality food and customer service. (source)

barbakan krakowski

Sukiennice

Like Vilnius

Lotsa sausage

I walked back, and it started pouring with rain, and got incredibly chilly, and my jacket was completely soaked. I went back to the hostel and saw the two French guys, whom I'd met that morning. They were a year older than me, were childhood friends, and were on a road trip from the Stans, back to Paris, their hometown. The hot one was called Etienne and the other one was called Victor, like the famous poet. Etienne had four brothers, I think, one of whom had actually been in my country for a year to travel or teach - I forget. He said his brother adored it there. Etienne lent me his navy blue pullover as my jacket was soaked. I thought it was very cute when he sniffed at it - "Yeah, it'll do" - and threw it over the room to me. The three of us sat in the hostel living room whilst it poured with rain outside. I suppose I couldn't complain, as I'd gotten rather nice weather for most of this trip, but wow, the only other place I've seen in Europe rain this hard was Prague. Not even London came close to the absolute deluge we had that day.

Sukiennice

When it stopped raining, we went to the Rynek Główny, and looked at the famous Sukiennice, or Kraków Cloth Hall in English. We ended up going to the night market in the Rynek and getting some sauerkraut, and then went to a bar where we were joined by their Chilean friend Javiera, and got well and truly drunk. Javiera was a 29 year old woman who used to be a schoolteacher, before quitting to travel the world, and she's been to some amazing places: Nepal, Egypt, Sudan. Last time I checked, she was in Australia. Etienne and Victor were pretty nice and bought me loads of drinks, and it was one of my fondest memories from a cityful of fond memories: the four of us staggering out, our arms around each other, whilst the night fog from Krakow surrounded us. Remarkable weather.

I woke up the next morning with a terrific hangover and walked out, rather dazed, to see Wawel Castle and to look at fair weather Rynek Główny. I felt dreadfully ill and wished I could enjoy the city a bit more. It was like walking through a haze, and I felt slightly disembodied - yes, very nice buildings, lovely weather, but this body doesn't feel like mine and those aren't my legs.

More to come..