June2

The Ukrainian police stop the other day has been on our minds. Mike sort of wanted to fight harder but he was thinking about Beverly standing outside while he was sitting in the car and Anna in Lviv would be waiting for us. Beverly wanted to be more intrusive with her camera but she was thinking about the police taking her phone which had some pictures on it that weren’t copied anywhere else. Though we think we did fairly well with the fine being dropped from $120 to $24, Mike wouldn’t allow them to have a passport and offered to go to jail, and Beverly did get some pictures. Anna said that police are now paid an adequate wage to combat the corruption like this. But unfortunately, that supposed transformation hasn’t filtered into the smaller towns yet. We concluded, for the current moment, that Beverly should have been right in there and taken more pictures. Hindsight isn’t 20/20 because we have no idea what would have happened had we acted more aggressively.

Now for today. We got an early start at 7AM to avoid the rain and thunderstorms forecasted for the afternoon. The 200mile drive to Krakow was nice and uneventful. The border crossing o Poland was routine – about 3 stops that took an hour. We were grateful that we were not in a car because it took an hour when we were able to jump to the front of the line. None of the cars appeared to have a problem with us doing that. Cars even moved aside so we could get our wide bike through the crowded lanes. The car line-up was long. We guess that it would have been at least a 3-hour wait had we stayed in line






Border


We experienced very light rain at the end of the trip. It wasn’t until after we arrived that the real rain started. We stopped in a town across the border to get some money. A city event like a fair with craft and food booths was going on. The streets were packed with cars. Mike parked the bike on the sidewalk, joining the many cars already there. We were walking across the street with the crowd when we noticed some police writing tickets for illegally parked cars. Mike went back and asked them if our “moto” was ok. At first they didn’t understand and thought it was a car. They motioned that it had to be moved. When they realized it was a motorcycle, they said “moto is good.”



Parked on the sidewalk


Going to the fair


All locked up


Ethnic food -- Polish sausage otherwise known as a hotdog.

Motorcycles really do get preferential treatment in Europe. Not just by the officials but by businesses and other drivers.



Bathroom with helmet holder


Bus lanes designated for motorcycles

We had wanted to get a place to stay right on the city square but there was no place for the bike. The city square is large and does not allow vehicles. Free parking is practically non-existent. Parking in garages outside the city square charge about 3Eu or more per hour. We opted to stay a little bit out of the center. It was within walking distance and easily accessible to public transportation.

We arrived at Hostel Extra, unpacked and headed for town. We had on our good rain-gear and plastic bag on the camera. The Salwater tram was traveling our route but we didn’t yet know how to find ticket machine. We did know that the fine for getting caught without a ticket was about $60 and they weren’t lenient with tourists.

Our Airbnb host provided some shelter for the bike.

On the way into town people were standing in the rain outside and across the street from the KAJKONIK pub. The people standing next to us told us to just wait. The Kajkonik is a character dressed up like a Tatar who once a year, parades through Krakow collecting ransom money and touching people with his mace for good luck. This has been going on for 700 years and is derived in some way from a story about repelling a Mongol invasion, and dressing up like the losers. It has become a Krakow Icon, hence the pub.


Something is going to happen soon



The festivities


Here is is -- Kajkonik






Walking around the square and town

We saw a sign in the square that said a bar was showing a soccer game, so it looked like an easy place to have a . We ended up in the middle of a bachelor party for Matt who was marring Holly. After the mandatory ribbing form older men to the groom to be on how he was giving up his freedom, we partied and talked about strategies for his business. These guys are body builders who sell vitamins, and want to market to travelers who might want custom packages of supplements shipped around the world to supply people as they travel. The and the party took over and we didn’t finish the business plan.


We chose this bar for the soccer game



and found a Bachelor party

It was still raining and about 9:30. The place to buy tram tickets was supposed to be easily seen at every stop by the square. We didn’t see any. We decided that since you are supposed to be able to buy a ticket on the tram, that is what we would do. We got on but the driver was behind a locked door, no one else was in our car and the tram took off. We didn’t figure out how to get a tram ticket until the next day. No fines tonight.

Back home to bed.