Triduum in Krakow - part 1

Any city founded on the slaying of a dragon was bound to be a hit with me, and our first impressions of the city on a relaxed Maundy Thursday were certainly favourable. We spent the morning pottering around Krakow in the sunshine, exploring the main square and the markets, and making our way up to the Wawel Castle and Cathedral. We didn't go in to either, as the entrance prices for the castle were pretty high and the cathedral was closed, but we had a good look round the various courtyards and admired the view of the Vistula curving through the city. A quick visit to the place where Smok the Dragon was allegedly killed was irresistible, although we managed to resist buying a nauseating fluffy version of him. Making our way back to the centre through the winding streets, we noticed how many priests there were hurrying to the castle, and realised that they were on their way to the Chrism Mass at the cathedral, which would also explain why we hadn't been able to go in. Lunch was fresh tomatoes and apples purchased from a local Polish market just outside the city centre, and we ate them sitting in the shade in the Planti (the park that surrounds the old city centre and protects it from the noise of the traffic) - a wonderfully cheap way to get a vitamin kick!

In the afternoon we were taken out for coffee on the main square by a family friend of ours, Dr Kloczowski, who teaches Philosophy at Krakow University. He proved to be great company and wonderfully welcoming. On hearing that we were arts students, he recommended us the best Polish authors to read and took us to some English language bookshops where we could buy Polish poetry in translation. He kindly offered to write the authors' names down for us, as we were having some difficulty in remembering how to say them, let alone spell them. We both found Polish probably the most difficult language we have yet encountered (possibly apart from Bulgarian, but then that is in a different alphabet)! Remembering how to pronounce a few crucial words was hard enough, but understanding anything anyone said was practically impossible as it all sounds like a big slur of zs. Apart from of course the chorus of "tac tac tac tac" (the Polish word for yes) which can be heard everywhere! Poles don't seem to be able to say yes just once.

When we had finished browsing the bookshops, we just had time for a quick freshen up before going to the Dominican church which Dr Kloczowski had recommended as having the best liturgy. The Maundy Thursday Mass was to begin at 7pm and he advised us to be early so as to get a seat. Not having yet encountered Polish Catholicism head on, we naively thought 6:30 would be early enough. Not a hope. When we arrived, more than half an hour early, there was already standing room only, and even the standing room was about two thirds full. We found a spot by a pillar which proved useful to lean on as the nearly 3 hour Mass progressed. We could barely see anything, and could understand even less, but there was such an amazing atmosphere that it didn't matter. The church was just crammed full of people with lots of groups of young nuns and a strong presence of students and young professionals. The music, though nothing like so grand and impressive as that in Vienna, was very moving because everyone clearly knew all the hymns and joined in with gusto. At the end of Mass, we paid a visit to the beautiful Altar of Repose in a side chapel which again was crammed with people on their knees and filled with meditative Taize music

Returning to the hostel, we were glad to sit down with a late supper of chicken stew (now a firm favourite on the Sarah-Lucy menu) before crawling into bed.