Krakow Old Town

Sometimes it takes being in another country to finally meet up with a friend you haven't seen in a while. Aga is a fellow graduate from Germersheim (where I completed my Master's) and she happened to be visiting her family in the vicinity of Katowice about the same time I was in Poland.

I returned from Zakopane to Krakow and met up with her and her beau Dominic at St. Florian's Tower. It is here that we joined another Walkative free walking tour, this time of the old town. It gave us further insights on Krakow's history as well as the Polish perspective of current events. We also learned that in the art museum, you can come face to face with a real DaVinci: Lady with an Ermine. Apparently, the portrait represents Lady Gallerani with her lover, the Duke of Milan. Since it was too scandalous to portray him with his mistress, DaVinci painted the ermine to represent him. Whether the choice of animal was a compliment or not, well, that's something our guide Tomasz left to our own speculations.

Afterwards, I was very eager to show them a very special (or should I rather say magical?) café I had spotted during my evening stroll a few days earlier...Read more